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CHAPTERS 



N 



SCANDINAVIAN IMMIGRATION 
TO IOWA 




BY 

GEORGE T. FLOM, Ph. D. 

'■\ 

PROFESSOR OF SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES 
IN THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 



Reprinted from 
THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS 
FOR 1905 AND 1906. Published at Iowa City Iowa by 
THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 






s-i 






1'^ 



CONTENTS 

The Scandinavian Factor in the American Popula- 
tion: 
Causes of Emigration fi-om Scandinavia. Growth and 
Distribution of the Scandinavian Population in the 
United States. The Geographical Distribution of the 
Three Scandinavian Nationalities; City and Country 
Population; Causes of the Distribution. Conclusion. 1-36 

The Coming of the Norwegians to Iowa: 

Norwegians in the United States before 1825. The 
Sloop Party and the Rochester Settlement. Other Set- 
tlements Prior to the Founding of the Fii'st Norwegian 
Colony in Iowa in 1840. The Course of Migration to 
Iowa. The Earliest Norwegian Settlement in Iowa — h^ 
its Founders, its Character, its Growth, and its Rela- 
tion to Later Westward Colonization. Norwegian Im- 
migration into Northeastern Iowa. The Founders of 
the Earliest Settlements. Other Colonies Established 
between 1850 and 1853. The Course of Settlement. 
Conclusion ........ 37-'73 

Early Swedish Immigration to Iowa: 

Swedes in the United States before 1841. Gustaf 
Unonius and the Pine Lake, Wisconsin, Settlement. 
The First Swedish Settlers in Illinois. The Bishop 
Hill Colony. The Course of Migration to Iowa. The 
First Swedish Settlement in Iowa. Names of the 
Founders and Locality in Sweden from Which They 
Came. Route and Cost of the Voyage. Relation of 
the Settlement to Later Western Migration. The 
First Swedes in Burlington. Other Early Settlements 



IV 

in the State down to 1855. Swede Point. Bergholm. 
Swede Bend. Mineral Ridge. The Founders of These 
Settlements. Two Early Settlements in Northeastern 
Iowa V4-10V 

The Danish Contingent in the Population of Early 
Iowa : 
Individual Immigration from Denmark to America 
down to 1840. The Beginnings of Organized Immigra- 
tion. The Earliest City Colonies and Rural Settlements, 
The Course of Migration to Iowa. The First Danes 
in Iowa. The Earliest Danish Settlements in the State. 
The Course of Migration. The Elk Horn Settlement 
in Shelby County. Danes in Pottawattamie County. 
The Coming of the Danes to Davenport and Des 
Moines lOV-130 

The Growth of the Scandinavian Factor in the Popu- 
lation OF Iowa: 
New Settlements formed between 1853 and 1856. The 
Scandinavian Population of Iowa at the Time of the 
First State Census; its Later Growth; the Westward 
Trend of Migration. Tables Illusti'ative of the Growth, 
Distribution, and Extent of the Scandinavian Popula- 
tion in Iowa at the Present Time .... 130-147 

Bibliography ........ 147-150 

Maps: 

Showing the Sections of the United States where the 
Scandinavian Population is most Ektensively Repre- 
sented ......... 20 

Earliest Norwegian Settlements in Iowa ... 62 

Centers of Dispersion and Course of Migration of the 

Norwegians .... ... 63 



THE SCANDINAVIAN FACTOR IN THE AMEEI- 
CAN POPULATION 

According to the census of 1900, there are in the United 
States, 1,064,309 Scandinavians of foreign birth. The 
children of these number 1,950,000, making a total Scan- 
dinavian population of 3,014,309, which is about ten per 
cent of the total foreign contribution to our population. 
And yet immigration from the Northern countries cannot 
be said to have properly begun before 1843; not until that 
year did it exceed 1,000 a year. In 1866 it exceeded 10,- 
000 for the first time. In 1869 it was 43,941. But drop- 
ping again in the seventies, it was only 11,274 in 1877. 
The period of heaviest immigration was between the years 
1880 and 1893, ^ reaching its climax in 1882 with 105,326. 

During the years 1820-1830 not more than 283 emigrated 
from the Scandinavian countries to the United States. In 
the following decade the number only slightly exceeded two 
thousand. Since 1850 our statistics regarding the foreign 
born population are more complete. In that year we find 
there were a little over eighteen thousand persons in the 
country of Scandinavian birth. In 1880 this number had 
reached 440,262; while the unprecedented exodus of 1882 
and the following years had by 1890 brought the number 
up to 933,249. Thus the immigrant population from these 



1 With 1894 there is a sudden decrease in the Scandinavian immigration. In 
1898 the number is only 19,282. After 1900 there is again a rapid increase, 
reaching 77,647 in 1903. 



countries, wMcli in 1850 was less than one per cent had in 
1890 reached ten per cent of the whole foreign element. 
The following table will show the proportion contributed 
by the countries designated for each decade since 1850: — 

Table I 
1850 1860 1810 1880 1890 1900 



Ireland ... 42.8 


38.9 


PER CENT 

33.3 27.8 


20.2 


15.6 


Germany . . .26 


30.8 


30.4 


29.4 


30.1 


25.8 


England ... 12.4 


10.5 


10 


9.9 


9.8 


8.1 


Canada .... 6.6 


6 


8.9 


10.7 


10.6 


11.4 


Scotland and Wales 4.4 


3.7 


3.8 


3.8 


3.7 


3.2 


Scandinavia . . .9 


1.7 


4.3 


6.6 


10.1 


10.3 



Thus it will be seen that among European countries 
Scandinavia, considered as one, stands third in the number 
of persons contributed to the American foreign born popu- 
lation, exceeding that of Scotland and Wales in 1870 and 
that of England in 1890. Both the Irish and the German 
immigration reached considerable numbers at least fifteen 
years before that from the North, the two making up sixty- 
nine per cent of the total in 1850 and nearly seventy per cent 
in 1860, in which latter year the Scandinavian immigrant 
element had not yet reached two per cent. In 1900 it was 
two-thirds that of Ireland and two -fifths as large as the 
German. It may also be noted that since 1890 these are 
fast decreasing while the Scandinavian shows an increase 
for the decade. 

As compared with other countries Scandinavia had in 
1850 sent only a third as many as France and less by four 
thousand than Holland and Switzerland combined. In 
1870 it was twice that from France and equalled the total 



8 

number from Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Bohemia, 
Hungary, Poland, and Russia. 

The Norwegians are the pioneers in the emigration move- 
ment from the North in the nineteenth century; the Danes 
were the last to come in considerable numbers. Statistics, 
however, show that 189 Danes had emigrated to this coun- 
try before 1830, while there were only 94 from Norway 
and Sweden.^ The Norwegian foreign born population had 
in 1850 reached 12,678; while that from Sweden was 3,559; 
and Denmark had furnished a little over eighteen hundred. 
The Danish immigration was not over 5,000 a year until 
1880 and has never reached 12,000. The Swedish immi- 
gration receives a new impulse in 1852 and reaches five 
thousand in 1868; it reached its climax of 64,607 in 1882. 
The Norwegian exodus began to assume larger proportions 
in 1843 and reached five thousand in 1866 (according to 
our census, but in 1853 according, to Norwegian statistics, 
the number for that year being 6,050, and this is probably 
much more nearly correct), the highest being 29,101 in 
1882. 

The total immigration from the Scandinavian countries to 
America from 1820 to 1900 is 1, 446,202. ^ This remarkable 
figure becomes doubly remarkable when we stop to con- 
sider that the population of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark 
is only two and one-half per cent of the total population of 

' It should, however, be remembered that the principal Scandinavian sailing 
ports were Gothenborg and Copenhagen, and we know that many Norwegians 
had before embarked from Copenhagen. It is not unlikely that a few Nor- 
wegians coming thus each year from a Danish port would, in American ports, be 
put down as Danes. The number from Denmark would then be correspondingly 
too high. 

» The total down to and including 1903 is 1,617,111. 



Europe, yet they liave contributed nearly ten per cent of 
our immigrant population. Counting those of foreign par- 
entage also, there are in this country nearly one -third as 
many Scandinavians as in the Scandinavian countries, while 
for the Geiman element the ratio is one to thirteen. In 
proportion to population Norway and Sweden have with one 
exception furnished more emigrants to America than any 
other of the European countries ; and there are in this country 
half as many Norwegians and Swedes, including those bom 
here of foreign parents, as in the Scandinavian peninsula. 

CAUSES OF EMIGKATION FROM SCANDINAVIA 

It will be natural to ask at this juncture, what are the 
causes that have brought about such an exodus from the 
Scandinavian countries in the 19th century? It is not a 
simple question to answer; for the causes have been many 
and varied, and it would be impossible in the following 
pages to discuss all the circumstances and influences that 
have -operated to promote the Northern emigration and 
directed it to America. Perhaps there is something in the 
highly developed migratory instinct of Indo-European 
peoples. Especially has this instinct characterized the Ger- 
manic branch, whether it be Goth or Vandal, Anglo-Saxon, 
Viking or Norman,^ or their descendants the Teutonic 
peoples of modern times, by whom chiefly the United 
States has been peopled and developed. 

Of tangible motives one that has everywhere been a 
fundamental factor in promoting emigration from European 
countries in modern times has been the prospect of material 
betterment. Where no barriers have been put against the 

iThat is, "Northman." 



emigration of the poor or the ambitious, unless special 
causes have arisen to create discontent with one's condition, 
the extent to which European countries have contributed to 
our immigrant population may be measured fairly closely 
by the economic conditions at home. As far as the North- 
ern countries are concerned I would class all these causes 
under two heads: the first will comprise all those conditions, 
natural or artificial, that can be summarized under the term 
economic; the second will include a number of special 
circumstances or motives which may vary somewhat for 
the three countries, indeed often for the locality and the 
individual. 

First then we may consider the causes which arise from 
economic conditions. These are well illustrated by the 
Scandinavian countries, slightly modified in each case by 
the operation of the special causes. Norway is a land of 
mountains, these making up in fact fifty -nine per cent of its 
total area, while forty -four per cent of the soil of Sweden is 
unproductive. The winters are long and severe, the cold 
weather frequently sets in too early for the crops to ripen, 
and with crop failure comes lack of work for the laboring 
classes and, burdened by heavy taxation, debt and impover- 
ishment for the holders of the numerous encumbered smaller 
estates. In Norway especially the rewards of labor are 
meagre and the opportunities for material betterment small. 
"Hard times" and the inability of the country to support 
the rapidly increasing population has, then, been a most 
potent factor. ^ The same will hold true of Sweden, though 

1 Thus the failure of crops and the famine in Northern Sweden, Finland, and 
Norway in 1902 was followed by a vastly increased immigration from these 
sections. See above page 1, note. Compare Table II below. 



in a somewhat less degree. Denmark is much better able 
to support a population of forty-one to the square mile than 
Sweden one of thirty, or Norway one of eighteen. ' 

In this connection compare above the statistics of immi- 
gration from the three countries, which are much lower for 
Denmark than for Norway and Sweden. The Danes at 
home are a contented people, and it is noticeable also that 
it is they who are most conservative here, who foster the 
closest relation with the old home, and who consequently 
become Americanized last. The Norwegians are the most 
discontented, are readiest for a change, are quickest to try 
the new^; and it is they, who most readily break the bonds 
that bind them to their native country, who most quickly 

adapt themselves to the conditions here, and who most 
rapidly become Americanized. 

Professor R. B. Anderson, in his book on the early 
Norwegian immigration^ puts religious persecution as the 
primary cause of emigration from Norway. I cannot pos- 
sibly believe that even in the immigration of the first half of 
the nineteenth century religious persecution was, except in a 
few cases, the primary or even a very important cause in 
the Scandinavian countries. In conversation with and in 
numerous letters from pioneers and their descendants, espe- 
cially in Iowa and Wisconsin, I have found that the hope of 
larger returns for one's labor is everywhere given as the 
main motive, sometimes as the only one. Whether it be 
the Norwegian pioneers in La Salle County, Illinois, or 

^ The area and population of the three countries are: — Sweden, area 172.876 
sq. m., population in 1901, 5,176,228; Norway, area 124,129, population in 1900, 
2,239,880; Denmark, area 15,3(50, population in 1901, 2,447,441. 

'First Chapter of Nonoegian Immigration., Madison, Wis., 1896. 



Rock County, Wisconsin, or the Swedes in Jefferson or 
Boone counties, Iowa, or the Danes in Racine County, 
Wisconsin, the causes are everywhere principally economic. 
But letters written by pioneers and by those about to emi- 
grate testify amply to the fact that it was the hard times 
that was the chief cause. 

A Norwegian Journal, Billed- Mag azin^ published in 
Chicago in 1869 and edited by Professor Svein Nilsen, 
offers much that throws light on this question. It contains 
detailed accounts of the early Norwegian immigration and 
the earliest settlements, a regular column of news from the 
Scandinavian countries, interviews with pioneers, etc. In 
one interview Ole Nattestad, who sailed in 1837 from Vsegli, 
Numedal, and became the founder of the fourth Norwegian 
settlement in America, that of Jefferson Prairie in Rock 
County, Wisconsin, and the neighboring Boone County in 
Illinois, describes his experience as a farmer in Numedal 
and how the difficulty of making any headway finally drove 
him to emigrate to America.-^ The statement of another 
pioneer I quote in its entirety.^ It is that of John Nelson 
Luraas who came from Tin in Telemarken to Muskego, 
Wisconsin, in 1839, and in 1843 moved to Dane County, 
Wisconsin. He says: — 

I was my father's oldest son, and consequently heir to the Luraas 
farm. It was regarded as one of the best in that neighborhood, but 
there was a $1,400 mortgage on it. I had worked for my father 
until I was twenty-five years old, and had had no opportunity of 
getting money. It was plain to me that I would have a hard time 

1 Billed -Magazin, 1860, pp. 82-83. 

* Billed -Magazin, 1809, pp. 6-7, printed in First Chapter, p. 269. 



8 

of it, if I should take the farm with the debt resting on it, pay a 
reasonable amount to my brothers and sisters, and assume the care 
of my aged father. I saw to my horror how one farm after the 
other fell into the hands of the lendsman and other money-lenders, 
and this increased my dread of attempting farming. But I got 
married and had to do something. Then it occurred to me that the 
best thing might be to emigrate to America. I was encouraged in 
this purpose by letters written by Norwegian settlers in Illinois who 
had lived two years in America. Such were the causes that led me 
to emigrate and I presume the rest of our company were actuated by 
similar motives.^ 

In a letter written by Andreas Sandsberg at Hellen, 
Norway, September 12, 1831, to Gudmund Sandsberg in 
Kendall, New York, the former complains of the hard times 
in Norway.^ In the spring of 1836 there emigrated from 
Stavanger county the second party of emigrants to Ameiica. 
On the 14th of May of that year Andreas Sandsberg wrote 
his brother Gudmund in America as follows: — 

A considerable number of people are now getting ready to go to 
America from this Amt. Two brigs are to depart from Stavanger 
in about eight days from now, and will carry these people to 
America, and if good reports come from them, the number of emi- 
grants will doubtless be still larger next year. A pressing and 
general lack of money entering into every branch of industry, stops 
or at least hampers business and makes it difficult for many people 
to earn the necessaries of life. While this is the case on this side of 
the Atlantic there is hope for abundance on the other, and this I 
take it, is the chief cause of this growing disposition to emigrate.* 



> In 18G8, Mr. Luraas moved to "Webster County, Iowa, returning to Dane 
County, Wisconsin, in 1873. I knew him in the early nineties as a well-to-do 
retired farmer living in Stoughton, Wisconsin. He died in 1894. 

* First Chapter, p. 137. 

• Letter copied from the original by R. B. Anderson in 1896 and printed in 
First Chapter, pp. 135-136. 



9 

A highly developed spirit of independence lias always 
been a dominant element in the Scandinavian character — I 
have reference here particularly to his desire for personal 
independence, that is, independence in his condition in life. 
Nothing is so repugnant to him as indebtedness to others 
and dependence on others. An able-bodied Scandinavian 
who was a burden to his fellows was well-nigh unheard of. 
By the right of primogeniture the paternal estate would go 
to the oldest son. The families being frequently large, the 
owning of a home was to a great many practically an 
impossibility under wage conditions as they were in the 
North in the first half and more of the preceding century. 

Thus the Scandinavian farmer's son, with his love of 
personal independence and his strong inherent desire to 
own a home, finding himself so circumstanced in his native 
country that there was little hope of his being able to 
realize this ambition except in the distant uncertain future, 
listens with a willing ear to descriptions of America, with 
its quick returns and its great opportunities. And so he 
decides to emigrate. And this he is free to do for the 
government puts no barrier upon his emigrating. This trait 
has impelled many a Scandinavian to come and settle in 
America; and it is a trait that is the surest guarantee of 
the character of his citizenship. Here too a social factor 
merits mention. 

While the Nobility was abolished in Norway in 1814 the 
lines between the upper and the lower classes, the wealthy 
and the poor, were tightly drawn and social classes were well 
defined. And while Norway is to-day the most Democratic 
country in Europe, and Sweden and Denmark are also thor- 



10 

oughly liberal (not least through the influence of America 
and American -Scandinavians), a titled aristocracy still exists 
in these countries. The extreme deference to those in supe- 
rior station or position that custom and existing conditions 
enforced upon those in humbler condition was repugnant to 
them. Not infrequently have pioneers given this as one 
cause for emigrating in connection with that of economic 
advantage. 

In the class of special causes which have influenced the 
Scandinavian emigration political oppression has operated 
only in the case of the Danes in Southern Jutland. As a 
result of the Dano -Prussian war of 1864 Jutland below 
Skodborghus became a province of Prussia. The greatly 
increased taxes that immediately followed and the restric- 
tions imposed by the Prussian government upon the use of 
the Danish language, as well as other oppressive measures 
that formed a part of the general plan of the Prussianizing of 
Sleswick-Holstein, drove large numbers of Danes away from 
their homes, and most of these came to the United States. 
In notes and correspondence ^from Denmark in Scandinavian- 
American papers during these years complaints regarding 
such regulations constantly appear, and figures of emigra- 
tion of Danes "who did not wish to be Prussians" are unusu- 
ally large for this period. ^ The United States statistics also 
show a sudden increase in the Danish immigration during 
the sixties and the early seventies. From 1850-1861 not 
more than 3,983 had emigrated from Denmark; while in 
the thirteen years from 1862 to 1874 the number reached 
30,978. 



» See for example in the foreign column of the Billed-Magazin. 



11 

Military service which elsewhere has often played such an 
important part in promoting emigration has in the Scandi- 
navian countries been only a minor factor, the j)eriod of 
service required being very short. Nevertheless it has in 
not a few cases been a secondary cause for emigrating. 
Those with whom I have spoken who have given this as 
their motive have, however, been mostly Norwegians and 
Swedes. 

Religious persecution has played a part in some cases, 
especially in Norway and Sweden. The state church is the 
Lutheran, but every sect has been tolerated since the middle 
of the century, in Norway since 1845. While few countries 
have been freer from the evil of active persecution because 
of religious belief, intolerance and religious narrowness have 
not been wanting. In the beginning of the 19th century 
the followers of the lay preacher, Hans Nielsen Hauge, in 
Noi'way were everywhere persecuted. Hauge himself was 
imprisoned for eight years. And the Jansenists in Helsing- 
land, Sweden, were in the forties subjected to similar perse- 
cution. Eric Jansen himself was arrested several times for 
conducting religious meetings between 1842-1846 — though 
it must in fairness be admitted that his first aiTest was 
undoubtedly provoked by the extreme procedure of the dis- 
senters themselves. After having been put in prison repeat- 
edly Jansen embarked for America in 1846 and became the 
founder of the communistic colony of followers at Bishops- 
hill, ^ Henry County, Illinois. No such organized emigration 



1 So named from Biskopskulla, Jansen's native place in Sweden. See article 
by Major John Swainson on "The Swedish Colony at Bishophill, Illinois," in 
Nelson's Scandinavians, I, p. 142. This article gives an excellent account of the 
founding of the Bishopshill settlement and Jansen's connection with it. See also 
American Communities by Wm. Alfred Hinds, 1902, pp. 300-320. 



12 

took place among the Haugians, but we have no means of 
knowing to what extent individual emigration of the follow- 
ers of Hauge took place during the three decades immedi- 
ately after his death. The well-known Elling Eielson/ a 
lay preacher and an ardent Haugian, emigrated in 18391 to 
Fox River, La Salle County, Illinois, and many of thOse 
who believed in the methods of Hauge and Eielson came to 
America in the following year. 

It was persecution also that drove many Scandinavian 
Moravians to America in 1740 and 1747. Moravian soci- 
eties had been formed in Christiania in 1737, in Copen- 
hagen in 1739, in Stockholm in 1740, and in Bergen in 
1740.-^ In 1735 German Moravians from Herrnhut, Saxony, 
established a colony at Savannah, Georgia.^ In this colony 
there seem to have been some Danes and ISTorwegians. In 
1740 a permanent colony was located at Bethlehem, Penn- 
sylvania, and in 1747 one at Bethabara, North Carolina. 
Persecuted Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish Moravians took 
part in the founding of both these colonies. 

In 1825 the first Norwegian settlement in America was 
established in Kendall, Orleans County, New York. This 
settlement was known as the Rochester settlement. The 
colony was formed by Quakers from Stavanger — the so- 
called "sloop party." It has been claimed that the "sloop- 
ers" were driven to emigrate by persecution at home." 
Another writer has shown that the only one of the Sta- 
vanger Quakers who sufi'ered for his belief prior to 1826 

> Decorah-Posten for September 9, 1904, p. 5. 

* R. B. Anderson is emphatic in this view. Pages 45-131 of his First Chapter 
of Norwegian Immiqration are devoted to a discussion of the sloop " Restaura- 
tionen" and the Quaker Colony in Orleans County. 



13 

was Elias Tastad, and he it seems did not emigrate.^ The 
leader of the emigrants in Restaur ationen^ Lars Larsen i 
Jeilane, had spent one year in London in the employ of the 
noted English Quaker, William Allen. In 1818, Stephen 
Grellet, a French nobleman who had become a Quaker in 
America, and William Allen preached in Stavanger.^ The 
Quakers of Stavanger were of the poorest of the people. It 
is highly probable, as another writer states,^ that Grellet, 
while there, suggested to them that they emigrate to America 
where they could better their condition in material things 
and at the same time practice their religion without violat- 
ing the laws of the country. The main motive w^as there- 
fore probably economic. 

It is perfectly clear to me that not very many of the 
Orleans County colonists were devout Quakers; for we 
soon find them wandering apart into various other churches. 
Some returned to Lutheranism; those who went west 
became mostly Methodists or Mormons; others did not join 
any church; while the descendants of those who remained 
are to-day Methodists. The Orleans County Quakers do 
not seem to have even erected a meeting-house; and in 
Scandinavian settlements a church, however humble, is, next 
to a home, the first thought. Nevertheless the Quakers of 
Stavanger did suft'er annoyances, and it must be remembered 
that the leader of the expedition and the owner of the sloop 
was a devout Quaker, ^ as were also at least two other leading 

1 Nelson's History of Scandinavians, 1901, p. 133. 

- B. L. Wick, in The Friends, Philadelphia, 1804, according to Nelson, p. 134 A. 
I have not been able to secure a copy of the above article, tlierefore cannot 
here state the arguments, or cite it more fully. 

3 Lars Larson settled in Rochester where he could attend a Quaker church. 
The same is true of Ole Johnson, another of the "sloopers" who later settled in 
Kendall but finally returned to Rochester. 



14 

members of tlie party. Had it not been for these very men 
the party would probably not have emigrated, at least not 
at that time. In 18-40-1850 there was much persecution of 
the first Baptists in Denmark; and not a few of this sect 
emigrated. In 1848 F. O. Nilson, one of the early leaders 
of the Baptist church in Sweden, was imprisoned and later 
banished from the country. He fled to Denmark, and 
in 1851 embarked for America. In the fifties Swedish 
Baptists in considerable numbers came to the United States 
because of persecution. 

Proselyting of some non-Lutheran churches in Scandinavia 
has been the means of bringing many Swedes, Norwegians, 
and Danes to this country. In the fifties Mormon mis- 
sionaries were especially active in Denmark and Norway. 
Their efforts did not seem to be attended by much success 
in Norway, though not a few converts were made among 
the Norwegians in the early settlements in Illinois and 
Iowa. In Denmark, however, their work was more suc- 
cessful. All those who accepted Mormonism emigrated 
to America of course, and most of them to Utah. In the 
years 1851, 1852, and 1853 there emigrated fourteen, three, 
and thirty-two Danes, respectively, to this country. But 
in 1854 the number rose to 691, and in the following three 
years to 1736. In 1850 there were in Utah two Danes; in 
1870 there were 4,957. 

In 1849 a Norwegian- American, O. P. Peterson, first 
introduced Methodism in Norway.^ After 1855 a regular 

Methodist mission was established in Scandinavia under the 

f 



^ See a brief account by Kev. N. M. Liljegren in Nelson's History of Scandi- 
navians, I, pp. 205-209. 



15 

supervision of a Danish -American, C. B. Willerup.^ While 
the Methodist church has not prospered in the Scandinavian 
countries, especially in Denmark and Norway, there are 
large numbers of Methodists among the Scandinavian immi- 
grants in this country, and the early congregations were 
recruited for a large part from Norw^ay, Sweden, and Den- 
mark. 

The efforts of steamship companies and emigration agents 
have been a powerful factor in promoting Scandinavian emi- 
gration. Through them literature advertising in glowing 
terms the advantages of the New World was scattered far 
and wide in Scandinavia. Such literature often dealt with 
the prosperity of Scandinavians who had previously settled 
in America. Letters from successful settlers were often 
printed and distributed broadcast. The early immigrants 
from the North settled largely in Illinois, Wisconsin, and, a 
little later, in Iowa. As clearers of the forest and tillers of 
the soil they contributed their large share to the develop- 
ment of the country. None could better endure the hard- 
ships of pioneer life on the Western frontier. Knowing 
this, many Western States began to advertise their respec- 
tive advantages in the Scandinavian countries. 

Far more influential, however, than these were the efforts 
put forth by successful immigrants to induce their relatives 
and friends to follow them. Numerous letters were written 
home praising American laws and institutions, and setting 
forth the opportunities here offered. These letters were 
read and passed around to friends. Many who had rela- 



1 Methodism had been introduced into Sweden from England early in the 
century. 



16 

tives in America would travel long distances to liear what 
the last "America- letter" had to report. Among the early 
immigrants who did much in this way to promote emigra- 
tion from their native districts was Gjert Ho viand. He 
emigrated to America in 1831 and settled in Orleans County, 
New York. In 1835 he removed to La Salle County, Illi- 
nois. He wrote many letters home. These "were trans- 
scribed and the copies passed around far and wide in the 
province of Bergen; and a large number were thus led to 
emigrate."^ One of the most prominent of Swedish pioneers 
was Peter Cassel." He is the founder of the first Scandi- 
navian settlement in Iowa at New Sweden, Jefferson County, 
and the first large Swedish settlement in America in the 
19th century. Through letters sent home to friends Cassel 
induced many of his countrymen to come to Iowa. These 
two instances are typical of many others. 

Some immigrants wrote books regarding the Scandinavian 
colonies in America, and these exerted not a little influence. 
Especial mention should be made of Ole Rynning's^ True 
Account of America for the Informcition and Help of 
Peasant and Commoner^ written hy a Norwegian who came 
there in the Month of June ^ 1837.^ This little book of 39 
pages had not a little to do with the emigration that fol- 
lowed to La Salle County, Illinois. 



1 See Billed-Magazin, p. 74. 

2 Born in Asby, 1791, and emigrated to America in 1840. 

s Ole Rynning was born in Ringsaker, Norway, 1809. He settled in La Salle 
County, Illinois, in 1837. 

* Sandfoerdig Bereinincj om Amerika til Velledning og Iljadp for Bonde og 
Menigmand, skrevet af en Norsk som kom der i Junl Maaned, 1S37. 

Ole Rynning's book was an intelligent discussion of thirteen questions regard- 
ing America wliich he set himself to answer. Among them were: What is the 



17 

The visits of successful Scandinavians back home was 
in the early days an important factor; and as a rule only 
those who had been prosperous would return home. In 
1835 Kund Anderson Slogvig, who had emigrated in the 
sloop in 1825, returned to Norway and became the chief 
promoter of the exodus of 1836 which resulted in the settle- 
ment at Fox River, La Salle County, Illinois. 

In letters from immigrants to their relatives at home pre- 
paid tickets or the price of the ticket were often enclosed. 
This custom was so common as to become a special factor 
in emigration. According to JSforsh Folkehlad (cited in 
Billed- Mag azin^ p. 134), 4,000 Norwegian emigrants, via 
Kristiana in 1868, took with them $40,335 (Speciedaler) in 
cash money of which $21,768 (Spd.) had been sent by 
relatives in America to cover the expense of the journey. 
It has been estimated that about fifty per cent of Scandi- 
navian emigrants arrive by prepaid passage tickets secured 
by relatives in this country.^ 

Finally, curiosity and the spirit of adventure have doubt- 
less prompted some to cross the ocean. 

To sum up, the chief influences that have promoted 
Scandinavian emigration to the United States in the nine- 
teenth century have been in the order of their importance: 
firsts the prospect of material betterment and the love of a 
freer and more independent life; second, letters of relatives 

nature of the country? What is the reason that so many people go there? Is it 
not to be feared that the land will soon be overpopulated? In what part are the 
Norwegian settlements? Which is the most convenient and the cheapest route 
to them? What is the price of land? What provision is there for the education 
of children? What language is spoken and is it difficult to learn? Is there 
danger of disease in America? What kind of people should emigrate? 
' Nelson's History of Scandinavians, 56. 



18 

and friends who had emigrated to the United States and 
visits of these again to their native country; thirds the 
advertising of agents of emigration; fourth^ religious per- 
secution at home; fifths church proselytism; sixths political 
oppression; seventh, military service; and eighth, the desire 
for adventure. Fugitives from justice have been few, and 
paupers and criminals in the Scandinavian countries are not 
sent out of the country; they are taken care of by the 
government. 

THE GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCANDINAVIAN 
POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES 

It has already been noted that the Norwegians are the 
pioneers in the Scandinavian immigration to America, and 
that the Danes were the last to come. The first Norwegian 
colony was founded near Rochester, New York, in 1825, 
and not until sixteen years later was the first Swedish 
colony planted at Pine Lake, Wisconsin. Neither of these 
settlements prospered, but both had some influence on the 
formation of the first permanent colonies elsewhere — the 
Norwegian at Fox River, La Salle County, Illinois, in 
1836, and the Swedish at New Sweden, Jefferson County, 
Iowa, in 1845. It was about fifteen years later that a 
Danish settlement was formed in Racine County, Wiscon- 
sin. The chief rural colony of Danes in the country, that 
of Audubon and Shelby counties in Iowa, did not really 
take its beginning before 18(j8.^ 

Between the founding of the Fox River settlement in 

1 There were some Danes there, however, as early as 1857 — see Shelby County, 
by J. J. Louis, p. G. (Reprint from The Iowa Journal of History and Politics.) 



19 

Illinois and that of the Swedes at New Sweden, Iowa, 
there had grown up a considerable number of Norwegian 
settlements principally in AVisconsin. The reason for the 
priority of the Norwegians and the lateness of the Danes is 
largely an economic one as has been shown above. Of the 
three nationalities, furthermore, the Danes are undoubtedly 
the most patriotic, and the most reluctant to leave their 
native country. It was economic causes that have furnished 
us the largest number of Danish immigrants, especially in 
the seventies, the eighties, and the early nineties; but it was 
a religious cause that gave the first impulse to the emigra- 
tion of Danes, and it was a political cause that first drove 
them away in large numbers. But for these causes Danish 
emigration to America would have been exceedingly small 
before the seventies. It may be largely an accident that 
the Norwegian exodus came so many years before the 
Swedish. When once the movement had been started it 
was bound soon to assume considerable proportions under 
the economic conditions of the times. Furthermore, the 
movement in Sweden was started not among those who 
were earning a meagre living by the hardest sort of work 
as it was in Norway, but among the middle classes and 
men in professional life.^ The father of Swedish emigration 
to this country in the nineteenth century was a graduate of 
Upsala. Under these circumstances it would take a longer 
time for such knowledge of America to reach the masses of 
the common people as would lead to extensive emigration. 
Finally, it may be recalled that while down to the middle 
of the nineteenth century one who desired to emigrate had 



1 And in part by mere adventurers. 



21 

to secure royal permission both in Sweden and Norway, a 
Swede before he could emigrate was required to pay 300 
Kronor or about $81, which undoubtedly at the time acted 
as a powerful barrier against any considerable emigration 
on the part of that class which later contributed chiefly to 
emigration. 

Before 18(38 immigrants from Sweden and Norway are 
classed together in the United States census. According to 
Scandinavian statistics, however, there emigrated from Nor- 
way to America between 1851-18G0, 36,070, and from 
Sweden 14,857. Before 1850 the emigration from Sweden 
was very small. With 1868 the figures became much larger 
than before, and since 1875 have always exceeded those for 
Norway. 

Table II 

Showing the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish immigration by 
decades since 1820, and by the year since 1891, 







NOEWAY 


SWEDEN 


DENMARK 


TOTAL 


(a) 


1820-30 




94 


189 


283 




1831-40 


1, 


,201 


1,063 


2,264 




1841-50 


13, 


,903 


539 


14,442 




1851-60 


20, 


931 


3,749 


24,680 1 




1861-VO 


109; 


,308 


17,094 


126,402 




1871-80 


94,823 


115,922 


31,760 


242,505 




1881-90 


176,586 


391,733 


88,132 


656,451 




1891-1900 


97,264 


230,677 


52,670 


378,657 


(^) 


1891 


12,568 


36,880 


10,659 


60,107 




1892 


14,462 


43,247 


10,593 


68,302 




1893 


16,079 


38,077 


8,779 


62,935 




1894 


8,868 


18,607 


5,581 


33,056 



* In 18G0 the Norwegian population was 43,995; the Swedish, 18,625. 



22 





NORWAY 


SWEDEN 


DENMARK 


TOTAL 


1895 


7,373 


15,683 


4,244 


27,300 


1896 


8,855 


21,177 


3,167 


33,199 


1897 


5,842 


13,162 


2,085 


21,089 


1898 


4,983 


12,398 


1,946 


19,327 


1899 


6,705 


12,796 


2,690 


22,191 


1900 


9,575 


18,650 


2,926 


31,151 


1901 


12,288 


23,331 


3,655 


39,074 


1902 


17,484 


30,894 


5,660 


54,038 


1903 


24,461 


46,028 


7,158 


77,647 



The Scandinavian population is very unevenly distributed 
in the different sections of the country. They have from 
the first avoided the South, they are not numerous in the 
East, while nearly seventy per cent of them reside in the 
northwestern States. A table will illustrate well this re- 
markable fact of distribution. The States are arranged in 
five groups showing the population in each for each decade 
since 1850. 

Table III 

Showing the number of Scandinavians of foreign birth in the live 
sections indicated from 1850 to 1900. 

1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 

The South* 1,084 1,531 3,709 3,834 5,846 7,450 

New England 749 1,507 3,113 11,243 43,596 70,632 

New York \ 

New Jersey V 1,897 4,506 12,291 28,532 75,331 105,641 
Pennsylvania ) 

TheNorthwest*13,278 56,275 193,578 336,511 670,148 715,121 
All other States 1,067 8,763 29,497 70,382 138,328 165,465 



1 Inchiding Maryland, but excluding Missouri and Texas. 
* Including Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and 
North and South Dakota. 



23 





Table IV 








Showing the growth of the Scandinavian population in tli 


e North- 


western States by decades since 


1850, and the total increase 


outside 


the Northwest. 












1850 


1860 


1870 


1880 


1890 


1900 


Michigan . . 139 


898 


5,276 


16,445 


41,496 


40,928 


Wisconsin . 8,885 


23,265 


48,057 


66,284 


99,738 


103,942 


Illinois . . 3,631 


12,073 


44,570 


65,414 


128,897 


144,812 


Iowa ... 611 


7,814 


31,177 


46,046 


72,873 


72,611 


Minnesota . . 12 


11,773 


58,837 


107,768 


215,215 


236,670 


Nebraska . . 


323 


3,987 


16,685 


46,341 


40,107 


North Dakota . 
South Dakota 


■j 129 


1 1,674 


1 17,869 


34,216 
31,372 


42,578 
33,473 


All other States 4,777 


16,307 


48,610 


113,751 


263,101 


349,188 



There are in the whole of the South at the present time 
only one -tenth as many Scandinavian immigrants as in the 
State of Iowa alone. While they are found in the South- 
ern States in small colonies, but principally as scattered 
settlers, as early as 1850, and while settlements have been 
formed at various times since then, they have never thrived 
and to-day there is outside of Texas no important Scandi- 
navian settlement in the whole of the South. Danes had 
settled in Louisiana to the number 288 in 1850, and to-day 
they number only 21G. Foreign born Swedes in Louisiana 
in 1850 numbered 249; to-day the number is only 359. 
There was one Norwegian family^ in Texas as early as 1840, 
in 1850 they numbered 105; while the total in 1900 was 
1,35(3. By 1860 the Danes had formed minor colonies in 
Missouri; their number being 464, which number has in- 
creased in 1900 to 1,510. There were in 1860 also 239 



1 John Norboe who bought a large tract of land in Dallas County in 1838. 



24 

Swedes of foreign birth in Missouri; the number to-day is 
5,692. Thus Texas and Missouri are the only Southern 
States where Scandinavians are found in appreciable num- 
bers — Norwegians and Swedes in the former, and Danes 
and Swedes in the latter. Elsewhere in the South the 
Swedes have settled to some little extent, that is to say, in 
Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. 
Recent Norwegian settlements in Tennessee, Alabama, and 
Virginia have not prospered. 

The reasons why Scandinavians have so generally avoided 
the South are not hard to find; they have already been in- 
dicated above under causes of emigration. The main rea- 
son was slavery, an institution upon which the Scandinavian 
immigrant looked with horror. Add to this the climate, so 
different from that of Northern Europe, and the general 
depression that followed the war in all lines in the South, 
and we have the causes that diverted the great body of 
Scandinavian immigrants from the South in the fifties, the 
sixties, and the early seventies. Finally, the Southern social 
conditions have also had their influence. Table III shows 
that before 1890 comparatively very few settled in New 
England and the East in general. It is, however, a note- 
worthy fact that in 1850 there were over thirteen thousand 
Scandinavian immigrants in the Northwest (nearly all in 
Wisconsin and Illinois or about five times as many in these 
two States as in the whole of the East.) In 1890 it was 
nearly six times as large. 

What were the influences that directed the Scandinavian 
immigrants so largely to the Northwest in the early period 
and down to 1890? This question, too, is answered above 



25 

under causes of emigration. The great majority came for 
the sake of bettering their material condition. They came 
here to found a home and to make a living. It is a fact, 
moreover, that immigrants in their new home generally 
enter the same pursuits and engage in the same occupations 
they were engaged in in their native country. Seventy -five 
per cent of the Swedes at home engage in agriculture, and 
nearly that proportion of the Danes. Though a far smaller 
number in jSTorway are actually engaged in farming, three - 
fourths of the population live in the rural districts.^ Thus 
seventy-two per cent of the Scandinavians in this country 
are found in the rural districts and in towns with less than 
25,000 population. The fact that the influx of the immi- 
grants from the North coincided with the opening up of the 
middle western States resulted in the settlement of those 
States by Scandinavian immigrants. Land could be had 
for almost nothing in the West. Land -seekers from New 
Eiigland, New York, and Pennsylvania were in those days 
flocking to the West.^ About eighty -eight per cent of the 
Scandinavian immigrants at that time were land-seekers. 
As a rule long before he emigrated the Scandinavian had 
made up his mind to settle in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, or 
Minnesota. 



1 This includes also fishermen and foresters. 

* Outside of Chicago, Illinois had in 1840 a population of 142,210; Wiscoasin 
was organized as a Territory in 1836, its population in 1840 was 30,945; Iowa had 
a population of only 192,212 in 1850; and Minnesota, organized as a Territory in 
1840, had in 1850, 1,056 inhabitants. To the square mile the population of each 
was in 1850: Illinois, 15.37; Wisconsin, 5.66; Iowa, 3.77; Minnesota, .04. 



26 



THE GEOGKAPHICAL DISTKIBUTION OF THE THEEE SCANDI- 
NAVIAN nationalities;^ city and country popula- 
tion; CAUSES OF THE DISTRIBUTION^ 

Table III shows that after 1880 a much larger proportion 
of the immigrants remained in New England, New York, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania than before; in fact the 
increase of those States is four hundred per cent in the 
decade as comj^ared with a little over two hundred per cent 
in the Northwest. The eastern increase is very largely in 
the cities — Boston, Worcester, Brockton (Mass.); Hartford, 
New Haven, Bridgeport (Conn.); Providence, li. I.; Man- 
chester, N. H. ; New York, and Philadelphia. This fact, how- 
ever, shows that not so large a proportion of the new arrivals 
came from the agricultural districts as before; but that a 
larger number were skilled laborers of various kinds, while 
many came from the cities or with city inclinations and 
entered mercantile pursuits. This class of immigrants from 
the North were very largely Swedes, and so we find that in 
the Eastern cities to-day everywhere Swedes predominate 
among the Scandinavian population, as they do generally 
in cities elsewhere. They serve especially as machinists, 
electricians, iron and steel workers, painters, and carpenters. 
Skilled laborers had also come in considerable numbers in 
the seventies from the three Scandinavian countries as Tables 
II and III indicate, and as the census reports regarding the 
occupation of immigrants show. But with the rapid industrial 
growth which characterized the seventies and the eighties 
came an increased demand for skilled workmen; and so 



* See also above p. 23. 

* See also above p. 24. 



27 

there resulted a larger immigration of that class from the 
North as well as from other countries^ elsewhere, and 
Sweden furnished the larger share of those that came from 
the Northern countries. Thus the Scandinavian population 
of Massachusetts is 38,097, of which eighty-six per cent are 
Swedes; that of Connecticut is 19,562, of which thirty- 
three per cent are Swedes; and in New York it is 64,055, 
the Swedes making up seventy per cent. And the bulk of 
these reside in the cities. The Swedes make up seventy - 
five per cent of the Scandinavians in Boston, ninety -seven 
per cent in Brockton, Massachusetts; eighty per cent in 
Cambridge; eighty-nine per cent in Providence; ninety-four 
per cent in Worcester; eighty -two per cent in Hartford; 
and seventy -seven per cent in Bridgeport. In New York 
City they number sixty -two per cent. New York is the 
only State in the East that has received any considerable 
Norwegian population. Here there are in all 12,601, nearly 
all of whom live in New York City. 

Table V 

The increase in the Scandinavian population from 1880 to 1900 in 
the cities designated will be shown by the following table: — 





1880 


1900 


New York 


9,719 


45,328 


Boston 


1,882 


7,361 


Worcester 


946 


7,964 


Providence 


254 


3,112 


Hartford 


118 


2,257 



1 The Swedish immigration was everywhere heavier in the eighties. The 
above will, however, explain the Swedish and the general Scandinavian increase 
in the East at this time. 



28 

Throughout the country everywhere the Swedes are 
found in larger numbers in the cities than the Danes or 
the Norwegians. Thus 207,109 or thirty-six per cent of 
the total Swedish contingent lives in cities having a popula- 
tion of 25,000 or more; whereas 43,456 or twenty -eight per 
cent of the Danes and only 65,447 or nineteen per cent of 
the Norwegians live in larger cities. This indicates a grow- 
ing preference for city life and mercantile pursuits on the 
pai't of the Danes. The Norwegian while found extensively 
in the smaller towns, does not readily take to the larger 
cities. The chief Danish city colonies are found in Chicago, 
New York, Racine (Wis.), Omaha, San Francisco, Minneap- 
olis, St. Paul, and Council Bluffs. The Norwegians are 
most numerous in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, St. 
Paul, Duluth, San Francisco, La Crosse (Wis.), and Supe- 
rior. The Swedes have located principally in Chicago, New 
York, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Worcester (Mass.), Hockford 
(111.), Boston, San Francisco, and Duluth, though they are 
found in several other cities in considerable numbers. 

In rural settlements Scandinavians are extensively repre- 
sented in all parts of the Northwest. It would be possible 
to travel hundreds of miles in Wisconsin, Minnesota, north- 
ern Iowa, and eastern North and South Dakota without 
leaving soil owned and tilled by Scandinavians. In Minne- 
sota there are numerous counties where the population is 
almost wholly Scandinavian.^ 

W^e have seen above that a majority of the Scandinavians, 
in fact nearly seventy per cent, have chosen to settle in the 



1 The foreign born Scandinavians in Ottertail County, Minnesota, number 
0,144; in To\k County, 8,908. 



29 

great agricultural Northwest. In the first half century of 
the Northern immigration approximately seventy- eight per 
cent located in that region. At the same time we have found 
that since about 1880 a very much larger proportion 
remained in the East, and that the majority of these came 
from Sweden. And we recall that Mormon proselyting 
directed a great many Danes to Utah in the middle of the 
century. We are then prepared to find a very unequal dis- 
tribution of the three nationalities in the various sections 
of the country. The Swedes make up 53.8 per cent of the 
total Scandinavian population, the Norwegian 31.7 per cent, 
and the Danes 14.5 per cent. The total immigrant Nor- 
wegian population is 338,426, of which eighty-one per 
cent are in the Northwest, while only 93,169 or sixty 
per cent of the Danes reside here, along with 339,409 
or fifty- nine per cent of the Swedes. In the East, Nor- 
wegians and Danes are few in numbers, while there are 
42,708 Swedes in New York State, 32,192 in Massachusetts 
and 24,130 in Pennsylvania. In the Southern States the 
Scandinavians are a wholly unimportant factor; some Swedes 
have settled there but the Norwegians are practically absent 
from the population. In the extreme West the Swedes and 
the Danes predominate over the Norwegians — the former in 
California, Washington, Utah, and Colorado, the latter in 
Utah, California, and Colorado. The Norwegians almost 
equal the Swedes, however, in Washington, and they 
have settled somewhat in Oregon, California, Idaho, and 
Montana. In Kansas, which is not included in our eight 
States, the Swedes have formed considerable settlements. 
The Norwegians are then bulked together on a much nar- 



30 

rower area, East and West, than either of the other two. 
About eighty-three per cent of the Norwegians reside be- 
tween 87° longitude as the Eastern limit and 100° on the 
West, while only about sixty -two per cent of the Danes are 
here and sixty-five per cent of the Swedes. It does not follow 
from this that the Norwegians are more clannish, though I 
think it would be safe to say that the Danes are the most cos- 
mopolitan. The reasons for the larger number of Swedes in 
the cities, especially in the East, lie, we have seen, in the 
somewhat different nature of the occupations that a large 
number of them pursue. The reason why the Norwegians 
are found largely in the Northwest is that a much greater 
proportion of them engage in agriculture and, as we have 
seen, their first coming in large numbers coincided with the 
opening up of the great Northwest. They are there by the 
right of priority; and they are there because they found 
that the great Northwest offered them the richest oppor- 
tunities in the occupations which by preference they follow 
and which they have rarely been tempted to leave. 

But the Scandinavian nationalities are also unevenly dis- 
tributed North and South, though less so than East and 
West. This, indeed, we would naturally expect. But 
before discussing this point I will offer a table showing the 
distribution of the three nationalities in the seventeen States, 
given in order, that have the largest Scandinavian popula- 
tion. 



31 

Table VI 

Foreign born Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes in the seventeen 
States where they are most extensively represented, according to the 



census of 1900. 














SWEDES 


NOBWEGIANS 


DANES 


TOTAL 


1 


Minnesota 


115,476 


104,895 


16,299 


236,670 


2 


Illinois 


99,147 


29,979 


15,685 


144,811 


3 


Wisconsin 


26,196 


61,575 


16,171 


103,942 


4 


Iowa 


29,875 


25,634 


17,102 


72,611 


5 


New York 


42,708 


12,601 


8,746 


64,055 


6 


North Dakota 


8,419 


30,206 


3,953 


42,578 


1 


Michigan 


26,956 


7,582 


6,390 


40,930 


8 


Nebraska 


24,693 


2,883 


12,531 


40,107 


9 


Massachusetts 


32,192 


3,335 


2,470 


37,997 


10 


South Dakota 


8,647 


19,788 


5,038 


33,473 


11 


California 


14,549 


5,060 


9,040 


28,649 


12 


Pennsylvania 


24,130 


1,393 


2,531 


28,054 


13 


Washington 


12,737 


9,891 


3,626 


26,254 


14 


Kansas 


15,144 


1,477 


2,914 


19,535 


15 


Connecticut 


16,164 


709 


2,249 


19,122 


16 


Utah 


7,025 


2,128 


9,132 


18,285 


17 


Colorado 


10,765 


1,149 


2,050 


13,964 



The table shows that the Scandinavians who are found in 
Kansas and Colorado are mostly Swedes; that those in 
California and Utah are chiefly Danes and Swedes. Note 
particularly that the number of Norwegians in these States 
is exceedingly small. The table also shows that the Nor- 
wegians are found in largest numbers in Minnesota and 
Wisconsin, the Swedes in Minnesota and Illinois, the Danes 
in Iowa and Illinois (and southern Wisconsin). That is, 
the Danes are generally found south of the Swedes and the 
Norwegians. Except in Minnesota and Washington the 



32 

Swedes are most numerous south of the jSTorwegians. In 
North Dakota the Norwegians make up seventy -three per 
cent of the Scandinavian population; in Wisconsin and 
South Dakota nearly sixty per cent. Outside of the cities 
of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth (and the region of 
Duluth), the Norwegians exceed the Swedes by about 40, - 
000 in Minnesota. And finally, in Iowa the Norwegians 
are nearly all in the northern or the central part of the 
State, very few being found in the southern and south- 
western part where the Danes and the Swedes have formed 
extensive settlements. Furthermore the Scandinavian set- 
tlements in Nebraska and Illinois are chiefly Swedish and 
Danish; they are south of the Norwegian line of settlement. 
It is not uninteresting to find in this connection that it is 
chiefly the Norwegians who have gone North into Canada 
and to Alaska.^ The Danes are few in number north of 
44° latitude, while the Norwegians have rarely gone South 
of 42°. In general the Danes have settled chiefly between 
38° and 44°; the Swedes between 40° and 48°; the Nor- 
wegians between 42° and 49°, to the Canadian border line. 
The three nationalities occupy then in America relatively 
the same position as in theu' old home. The reason for 
their location North and South is of course climatic, as the 
causes for their distribution East and West are largely 
economic. It is a climatic reason in considerable part has 
kept them from settling in the South. ^ 

It would be interesting to discuss such questions as the 



1 The Icelanders are located almost exclasively in Manitoba and in North 
Dakota. 

2 See above, p. 23. 



33 

increase in population of each nationality in city and coun- 
try in the northern and southern settlements, intermarriage 
with native or other foreign nationalities, etc., etc., but space 
will not permit. Briefly, however, it may be stated that 
the Norwegians increase most rapidly. The increase is 
greater in the cities than in the country; in the West than 
in the East. With the table above of foreign born Scan- 
dinavians may be compared the following figures for the 
same States of those whose parents are born in the Scan- 
dinavian countries. 

Table VII 

Showing tbe Scandinavian foreign parentage population in the 
seventeen States listed in Table YI. 







SWEDES 


NORWEGIANS 


DANES 


TOTAL 


1 


Minnesota 


211, T69 


224,892 


29,704 


466,365 


2 


Illinois 


187,538 


45,701 


24,427 


265,726 


3 


Wisconsin 


45,400 


134,293 


30,000 


209,699 


4 


Iowa 


57,189 


58,994 


32,489 


148,672 


5 


New York 


62,559 


17,775 


11,714 


92,048 


6 


North Dakota 


13,474 


63,900 


6,700 


83,074 


7 


Nebraska 


49,292 


5,837 


23,898 


79,027 


8 


Michigan 


47,316 


12,813 


11,482 


71,611 


9 


South Dakota 


15,725 


44,119 


9,506 


69,350 


10 


Massachusetts 


47,505 


4,611 


3,358 


55,474 


11 


Pennsylvania 


41,760 


1,877 


3,522 


47,159 


12 


California 


21,090 


7,232 


14,049 


42,371 


13 


Washington 


19,359 


16,959 


5,717 


42,035 


14 


Kansas 


30,000 


2,818 


5,328 


38,246 


15 


Utah 


12,047 


3,466 


18,963 


34,476 


16 


Connecticut 


25,000 


977 


3,457 


29,434 


IV 


Colorado 


17,000 


1,744 


3,295 


22,039 



34 

The Swedes have nowhere increased two hundred per 
cent, though they have very nearly reached that figure in 
Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. The Danes have increased 
two hundred per cent in Utah and almost as much in 
Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The Norwegians 
number in the second generation two hundred and fourteen 
per cent more in Minnesota, and over two hundred in Wis- 
consin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, 
and nearly the same in several other States. 



Much has been written about the Scandinavian as a 
highly desirable immigrant, and the readiness with which 
he adapts himself to American conditions has often been 
commended. He has been a desirable immigrant because 
he comes from countries where there is less illiteracy than 
in any other part of the world; and so we find that in the 
States where the Scandinavian element is the strongest 
illiteracy is lowest. The Scandinavian has been a desirable 
immigrant because he always came with the intention of 
becoming an American citizen, learning the language of the 
country, obeying its laws, and making the most of his 
opportunities. And it is not without interest to note in 
this connection that of the foreign born citizens who cannot 
speak English, only six -tenths per cent are Danes, three 
and two-tenths per cent Norwegians, and three and five- 
tenths per cent Swedes; while for the Canadian-French it is 
seven per cent, the Poles eleven per cent, the Italians fifteen 
and three -tenths per cent, and the Germans eighteen and 



35 

eight -tenths per cent. It is also interesting to note the 
large proportion of Scandinavians in gainful occupations. 

By more than one writer they have been pronounced our 
most law-abiding citizens. The Scandinavian readily enters 
into the spirit of American institutions because he comes 
from countries whose laws and institutions are so very much 
like our own. He has been reared in countries that are in 
fact as free as our own, therefore he comes with the very 
best qualifications for intelligent American citizenship. But 
good citizenship in America does not imply that he must 
immediately forget his language and with it all that that 
means. It does not imply that he must forget the religion 
of his fathers, and the ethical principles w^hich the practice 
of that religion has inculcated. It does not mean that he 
shall forget the ideals of the race. If the Scandinavian 
has become a good citizen it is because, while he tries to 
assimilate that which is good in his new life, he brings with 
him a paternal heritage that is rich and noble, and because 
he cherishes that heritage. This is the prime condition of 
a high order of citizenship in America. 



THE COMING OF THE NORWEGIANS TO IOWA 

NORWEGIANS IN THE UNITED STATES BliFORE 1825. THE SLOOP 
PARTY AND THE ROCHESTER SETTLEMENT. OTHER SET- 
TLEMENTS PRIOR TO THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST 
NORWEGIAN COLONY IN IOWA IN 1840. 
THE COURSE OF MIGRATION TO IOWA. 

Our data regarding Norwegian emigration to America 
prior to 1825 are very fragmentary; but it is possible to 
trace that emigration as far back as 1624.^ In that year a 
small colony of Norwegians was established in New Jersey 
on the site of the present city of Bergen.^ While it is not 
known that the names of any of these first colonists have 
<3ome down to us, we do have the name of one Norwegian 
who visited the American coast on a voyage of exploration 
in the year 1619, that is, the year before the landing of the 
Mayflower. In the early part of 1619 King Christian IV of 
Denmark fitted out two ships for the purpose of finding a 
northwest passage to Asia. The names of the ships were 
Eenhjorningen and Lampreren, and the commander was a 
Norwegian, Jens Munk, born at Barby, Norway, in 1579. 
AVith sixty-six men Jens Munk sailed from Copenhagen, May 
9, 1619. During the autumn of that year and the early 
part of the following year he explored Hudson Bay and 
took possession of the surrounding country in the name of 

1 The Vinland voyages in the llth-14th centuries do not come within the scope 
of tliis article. 

* It seems that this city was so named by the colonists after the city of Bergen, 
Norway. 



37 

King Christian, calling it Nova Dania. The expedition was, 
however, a failure, and all but three of the party perished 
from disease and exposure to cold in the winter of 1620. 
The three survivors, among whom was the commander, 
Jens Munk, returned to Norway in September, 1(520.^ 

In the early days of the New Netherlands colony, Norwe- 
gians sometimes came across in Dutch ships and settled 
among the Dutch. The names of at least two such have 
been preserved in the Dutch colonial records. They are 
Hans Hansen and Claes (Claus?) Carstensen. The former 
emigrated in a Dutch ship in 1633 and joined the Dutch 
colony in New Amsterdam. His name apj^ears in the colo- 
nial records variously as Hans Noorman, Hans Hansen de 
Noorman, Hans Bergen, Hans Hansen von Bergen, and 
Hans Hansen von Bergen in Norwegen. Hans Bergen be- 
came the ancestor of a large American family by that name." 

About the year 1700 there were a number of families of 
Norwegian or Danish descent^ living in New York. In 
1704 a stone church was erected by them on the corner of 
Broadway and Rector streets. The property was later sold 
to Trinity Church, the present churchyard occupying the 
site of the original church.'* Mr. R. B. Anderson says 
that these people were probably Norwegians and not Danes, 
for those of their descendants with whom he has spoken 
have all claimed Norwegian descent. The pastor who min- 
istered to the spiritual wants of this first Scandinavian Luth- 

^ Anderson's First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, p. 21. 
s See The Bergen Family, by Teunis Bergen. 

* More probably both Norwegian and Danish. 

* Anderson, citing Rev. R. Anderson, who has given this subject much study. 
See First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, p. 22. 



38 

eran congregation in America was a Dane by the name of 
Rasmus Jensen Aarhus. He died on February 20, 1720. 

In 1740 Norwegian Moravians took part in the founding 
of a Moravian colony at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and in 
1747 of one at Bethabara, North Carolina.^ At Bethlehem 
these Norwegian (and Swedish and Danish) Moravians came 
in contact with their kinsmen, the Swedish Lutherans of 
Delaware and adjoining parts of New Jersey and Pennsylva- 
nia. The Swedes on the Delaware had lost their independ- 
ence in 1656. New Sweden as a political state existed but 
sixteen years. Ecclesiastically, however, the Lutherans of 
New Sweden remained subject to the state church at home 
for one hundred and fifty years more, and linguistically the 
colony was Swedish nearly as long. In the church records 
of this colony there appear not a few Norwegian names, par- 
ticularly in the later period. There can be little doubt that 
Norwegians in some considerable numbers came to Amer- 
ica and joined the Delaware Swedes in the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Gothenburg, which lies not far distant from the prov- 
ince of Smaalenene, was at the time and has continued to be 
the regular Swedish sailing port for American-bound ships. 
Among the founders of the Bethabara colony appears the 
name of Dr. John M. Calberlane,^ from Trondhjem, Nor- 
way, who came to New York in 1753. 

The names of several Norwegians are recorded who served 
in the War of the Revolution. Under John Paul Jones 
there served Thomas Johnson, from Mandal, Norway.^ An- 

1 See above, p. 12. 

* See JJecorah-Posten for September 9, 1904, p. 5. The name was originally 
Hans Martin Kalberlahn. 

» See account of Thomas Johnson in the New England Historical Register, Vol. 
XXVIII, pp. 18-21. 



39 

other Norwegian by the name of Lewis BroAvn (Lars Brun?) 
also served under John Paul Jones. At a little later date 
some other names also appear, but the ones given are the 
earliest of which we have any record. We shall now pass 
on to the "Sloopers" of 1825, whose sailing inaugurated the 
emigration movement from Norway in the nineteenth century. 
We have already mentioned the Stavanger emigrants of 
1825 and noted some of the circumstances that seem to have 
led to the departure of the sloop party in that year.^ The 
director of the expedition and the chief owner of the boat 
was Lars Larsen i Jeilane; and the captain was Lars Olsen. 
The company consisted of fifty-two persons, all but one be- 
ing natives of Stavanger and vicinity, the one exception being 
the mate, Erikson, who came from Bergen. On the -Ith of 
July, 1825, the party of emigrants set sail from Stavanger 
in the sloop "Restaurationen," a boat of only forty-five tons 
capacity. After a perilous voyage of fourteen weeks they 
landed in New York, October 9th. ^ In New York the emi- 



' See above, pp. 12, 13. 

^An account of the voyage, which was, it seems, a rather adventuroiLS one, 
was given by the Tvew York papers at the time, and may be found in Billed- 
Magazin from which it has been reprinted in other works. 

The arrival of this first party of Norwegian immigrants, and in so small a boat, 
created nothing less than a sensation at the time, as we may infer from the wide 
attention the event received in the eastern press. One of these notices I take 
the liberty of copying from Anderson's First Chapter, pp. 70-71. It is one which 
appeared in the New York Daily Advertiser for October 12, 182-"), under the head 
lines of A Novel Sight: — 

" A vessel has arrived at this port with emigrants from Norway. The vessel is 
very small, measuring as we understand only about 3(i0 Norwegian lasts or forty- 
five American tons, and brought forty-six [should be fifty-two] passengers, male 
and female, all bound to Ontario County [should be Orleans County on the Onta- 
rio], where an agent who came over some time ago purchased a tract of land. 
The appearance of such a party of strangers, coming from so distant a country 
and in a vessel of a size apparently ill calculated for a voyage across the Atlan- 
tic, could not but excite an unusual degree of interest. They have had a voyage 



40 

grants met Mr. Joseph Fellows, a Quaker from whom they 
purchased land in Orleans County, New York. It seems 
to have been upon the suggestion of Mr. Fellows that they 
were induced to settle here, although it is possible that the 
land had already been selected for them by Kleng Peerson, 
a Quaker who had left Stavanger in 1821 and who was in 
New York at the time. The price to be paid for the land 
was $5 an acre, each head of a family and adult person pur- 
chasing forty acres. ^ The immigrants not being able to pay 
for the land, Mr. Fellows agreed to let them redeem it in 
ten annual installments.^ For the further history of the col- 
ony, with which we are here not so much concerned, the 
reader is referred to Anderson's First Chapter of Nonce- 
giari Immigration.^ The colony was in many respects un- 
fortunate, it did not j^rosj^er and has never played any im- 
portant part as a colony in Norwegian-American history. 
But a few years later a daughter colony was established in 
La Salle County, Illinois, which became the first extensive 



of fourteen weeks and are all in good health and spirits. An enterprise like this 
argues a good deal of boldness in the master of the vessel as well as an adventur- 
ous spirit in the passengers, most of whom belong to families in the vicinity of a 
little town at the southwestern extremity of Norway, near Cape Stavanger. 
Those who came from the farms are dressed in coarse cloths of domestic manu- 
facture, of a fashion different from the American, but those who inhabited the 
town wear calicos, ginghams and gay shawls, imported we presume from England. 
The vessel is built on the model common to fishing boats on that coast, with a 
single mast and top-sail, sloop-rigged. She passed through the English channel 
and as far south as Madeira, where she stopped three or four days and then 
steered directly for New York, where she arrived with the addition of one pas- 
senger born on the way. It is the captain's intention to remain in this country, 
to sell his vessel and prepare himself to navigate our waters by entering the 
American Merchant Marine Service and to learn the language." 

' Scandinavia, Vol. I, p. 64. 

* Anderson's First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, p. 77. 

» Or to Knud Langeland's Nordynoendene i Amerika (published by John Ander- 
son & Co., Chicago, 1889), pp. 10-19. 



41 

Norwegian settlement in the Northwest and a central point 
from which numerous other Norwegian settlements in Illi- 
nois, Wisconsin, and Iowa were formed. 

Very few Norwegians immigrated during the following ten 
years. Those who came generally located in Orleans Coun- 
ty, but rarely remained there permanently. The north- 
western States were then just beginning to be opened up to 
settlers. At this time the trend of migration from the east- 
ern States was directed particularly to Illinois. Good gov- 
ernment land could be had here for $1.25 an acre. The 
very heavily wooded land that the Norwegian immigrants 
in Orleans County had purchased proved very difficult of 
improvement; and many began to think of moving to a more 
favorable locality. In 1833 Kleng Peerson, who seems to 
have lived in Kendall at this time, made a journey to the 
West, evidently for the purpose of finding a suitable loca- 
tion. He selected La Salle County, Illinois, returning in 
the same year to Kendall, New York. The next year sev- 
eral of the sloopers removed to La Salle County and settled 
in Mission, Rutland, and Miller townships. The names of 
these first Norwegian settlers in the Northwest are: Jakob 
Anderson Slogvig, Knud Anderson Slogvig, Gudmund 
Haugaas, Endre Dahl, and Thorsten Olsen Bjaaland. 

In 1835 Daniel Rossadal and family, Nels Nelson Hers- 
dal and family, and Kari Hauge, widow of Cornelius Nel- 
son with a family of seven children, moved to La Salle 
County. The slooper, Thomas Madland, had died in 1826, 
and in 1835 his widow and family of seven moved to Illi- 
nois. George Johnson also removed in 1835. Nels Thomp- 
son with wife and four children seems to have settled in La 



42 

Salle County in 1834. In 1831 Grjert Hovland had come 
from Hardanger, Norway, and settled in Orleans County, 
New York. In 1835 he sold his land and removed to La 
Salle County, Illinois. Many of these purchased land in La 
Salle County in June, 1835, entry of which appears in the 
county records for that year. Others came from Kendall to 
La Salle County and settled in 1836.^ Before 1836 there 
seems to have been a colony of about thirty Norwegians set- 
tled principally in Mission and Eutland townships, La Salle 
County, Illinois, all of whom had come from Kendall, Or- 
leans County, New York, in 1834-35. Thus was formed 
the nucleus of what grew to be the most prosperous rural 
community in Illinois, and which at present extends into the 
neighboring counties of Lee, De Kalb, Kendall, and Grundy. 
In 1836 the colony received important accessions from 
southwestern Norway. The chief promoter of the immigra- 
tion of that year was Knud Slogvig, who had come in the 
sloop in 1825, and who, we have seen, settled in La Salle 
County in 1834. In 1835 he returned to Skjold, Norway, 
and there married a sister of Ole O. Hetletvedt, a slooper 
whom we find as one of the early pioneers of La Salle 
County. While there people came to talk with him about 
America from all parts of southwestern Norway; and a 
large number in and about Stavanger decided to emigrate. 
Slogvig's return may be said to have started the ''America- 
fever" in Norway, though it took some years before it 
reached the central and the eastern parts of the country. 
Slogvig intended to return to America in 1836, and a large 



lAmong them was Gudmund Sandsberg, who had emigrated from Norway in 
1829.— See above, p. 8. 



43 

party was preparing to emigrate with him. In the spring 
of that year the two brigs, JVorden ^ and Den JSforshe Klip'pe^ 
were fitted out from Stavanger. The former sailed on the 
first Wednesday after Pentecost, arriving in New York, July 
12, 1836. The latter sailed a few weeks later. They car- 
ried altogether two hundred emigrants, most of whom went 
direct to La Salle County, Illinois. These were followed in 
the next year by one ship, Enigheden,^ commanded by Cap- 
tain Jensen, from Egersund and Stavanger, carrying ninety- 
three passengers. The larger number of these also went to 
La Salle County. 

By this time we find the desire to emigrate taking definite 
form in the districts directly east and north of Stavanger as 
far as Bergen. About the same time that the Enigheden 
left Stavanger in the spring of 1837, the ship ^gir,^ com- 
manded by Captain Behrens, sailed from Bergen, carrying 
eighty-four passengers to New York. The beginning of the 
emigration from western Norway, or more particularly from 
South Bergenhus Province, seems to be due chiefly to N. P. 
Langeland, a school-teacher from Samnanger (a little east of 
Bergen) and one of the passengers in the JEgir. He settled 
in Lapeer County, Michigan, and seems to have been the 
first Norwegian to locate in that State. He seems to have 
been one of the many v>^ho traveled long distances to talk 
with Knud Slogvig during his visit at home in Skjold in 
1835. The passengers on the Enigheden went for the most 

1 The North. 

2 The Norwegian Rock. The majority of the passengers on these two ships 
were from Hardanger. 
» Unity. 
< The name of the old Norse sea-god. 



44 

part to the Fox River settlement, as the settlement in La 
Salle County came to be known. Nearly all early emigrants 
from Stavanger and vicinity went to La Salle County. 
Those in the JEgir seem also to have intended to settle in 
the same locality, but in Chicago were advised by two 
Americans not to go there. They were also partly influ- 
enced by Norwegian immigrants who were dissatisfied in La 
Salle County, and who recommended Iroquois County as a 
desirable location for a new settlement. To this place about 
fifty of the passengers on the JEgir went, settling about sev- 
enty-five miles south of Chicago at a place called Beaver 
Creek. This is, then, the third Norwegian settlement. 
Besides the one hundred and seventy-seven immigrants who 
came to America from Stavanger and Bergen in 1837, there 
was a considerable number who embarked from Gothen- 
burg, Sweden. These came mostly from Numedal and Tel- 
emarken in the south central part of Norway. 

Among the emigrants of 1837 we must mention particu- 
larly four: the brothers Ole and Ansten Nattestad from 
Numedal, Ole Kynning and Hans Barlien from the pro- 
vince of Trondhjem. Ole Rynning wrote a book which 
perhaps had more influence than any other one thing in 
promoting emigration from the province of south central 
Norway.^ Ansten Nattestad may be regarded as the father 
of the emigration movement from Numedal, Norway, from 
which some of the most successful Norwegian settlements in 
Illinois, AVisconsin, and Iowa were later recruited. His 
brother, Ole Nattestad, became the founder of one of these 
settlements, that of Jefferson Prairie, in Rock County, Wis- 

1 See above, p. 16, and note 4. 



45 

consin (also extending into Illinois); while Hans Barlien be- 
came the founder of the lirst Norwegian settlement in Iowa 
at Sugar Creek, Lee County.^ 

The first city colony in the West was that in Chicago, 
which dates back to 183C). The earliest Norwegian settlers 
seem to be Nils Kothe and his wife Thorbjor, from Voss. 
They are also the first emigrants from that district in Nor- 
way. In the fall of 183(3 Halstein Torrison from Fjeld- 
berg,^ County of Stavanger, and Johan Larsen settled there. 
In 1889 some emigrants from Numedal and Voss, Norway, 
located in Chicago. In 1844 Rev. J. AY. C. Dietrichsen writes 
in his Travels' (page 89) that on a missionaiy visit to Chi- 
cago in that year he found a considerable number of Norwe- 
gians, who for the most part were located only temporarily, 
intending later to go to the settlements in Illinois or AVis- 
consin. There were, he says, about one hundred Norwe- 
gians permanently settled in Chicago. This was in 1844. 
In 1860 there were in Chicago 1,313 Norwegians; in 1880, 
9,783; and in 1900, 22,011. 

In 1837 Kleng Peerson, Jakob and Knud Slogvig, An- 
ders Askeland, Andrew Simonsen, and about ten others left 
the Fox River settlement, went to Missouri, and founded 
a small settlement in Shelby County, which, however, 
proved unsucessful, principally on account of the lack of a 
market.* The settlement was practically broken up in 1840, 



* See below, p. 57. 

* His first house, says Langeland, was on Wells street, on the ground now occu- 
pied by the Chicago & Northwestern depot. 

^Eeise blandt de norske Emigranter i de forenede nordamerikanske Stater, af J. 
W. C. Dietrichsen, Stavanger, 1846. 

* B. L. Wick, in Bepublikaneren (Story City, Iowa) for February 9, 1900. 



46 

when most of the settlers removed north to Lee County in 
Iowa. The fifth settlement was established in 1839 in Wau- 
kesha County, AVisconsin, this being the first Norwegian 
settlement in Wisconsin. 

By the year 1839 emigration from Norway begins to 
assume larger proportions, and certain districts which hith- 
erto had sent very few now begin to contribute the larger 
share of the number of emigrants to America. This year 
may very properly be said to have inaugurated the second pe- 
riod in Norwegian immigration history. Down to 1839 the 
emigration movement in Norway had not really gone beyond 
the provinces of Stavanger and South Bergenhus in south- 
western and western Norway. Indeed, nearly all of the 
emigrants had come from these sections. In fact, before 1836 
the movement was almost confined to Stavanger and vicin- 
ity. In that year it reaches Hardanger, and in 1837, Bergen. 
It does not reach Yoss properly before 1838, although Nils 
Eothe and wife had emigrated from there in 1836. In 
1837, as we have seen, the first ship of emigrants, the ^gir, 
left Bergen with eighty-four passengers. Before 1839 we 
meet with occasional individual emigration from jirovinces 
to the east and northeast. Thus Ole Bynning from Snaasen 
in Trondhjem diocese emigrated in the ^gir in 1837. The 
first emigrants from Telemarken also came in 1837. They 
were Erik Gauteson Midboen, Thore Kittilsen Svimbil, and 
John Nelson Kue.^ These three all had families and came 
from Tin parish in Upper Telemarken, evidently by way of 
Skien and Gothenburg. They settled in La Salle County, 



1 Thore Svimbil later moved to Blue Mounds, Daue County, Wiscoiisin, while 
John Rue moved to Winneshiek County, Iowa. 



47 

Illinois.^ Au unmarried man, Torsteii I. Gulliksrud, also 
came at the same time. 

The fathers of the movement in the next county, Nume- 
dal, were the two brothers, 01 e and Ansten Nattestad, who 
also came in 1837.^ These together with Halsten Halverson, 
failing to secure passage in Stavanger after walking across 
the mountains on skis fi'om Rollaug in Numedal to Tin in 
Telemarken and then over the hills and through the forests 
to Stavanger (as one of the party writes), secured passage 
at Tananger and came via Gothenburg and Fall lliver, Mas- 
sachusetts. Among the emigrants from other j^arts of Nor- 
way prior to 1837 must be mentioned also Johan Nordboe, 
from Ringebo in Gudbrandsdalen, who came in 1832 and 
resided for some time in Kendall, New York, later going 
to Texas; and Hans Barlien^ from Trondhjem County, 
who came to La Salle County in 1837. Neither of these 
two men, however, were instrumental in bringing about any 
emigration movement in Gudbrandsdalen and Trondhjem. 
It is not until a much later period that these two districts 
are represented in considerable numbers among emigrants. 
Nor was the departure of the three families from Telemarken 
in 1837 followed by others until 1839, and then it seems 
not directly influenced by these, although their letters may 
have had something to do with the exodus from Tele- 
marken which began in 1839. Nor did the movement start 
in Numedal before 1839; but here at any rate it was directly 
promoted by one of the emigrants of 1837.'* 

1 Scandinavia, p. 04. 

2 See above, p. 44. 
» See above, p. 44. 

■•See above, p. 44. On thi.g subject .see Knud Langeland's Nordmcendene i 
Amerika, pp. 33-30. 



48 

Similarly, the year 1839 marks a change also in the move- 
ment of the course of settlement. Down to this time all 
emigration from Norway stands in direct relation to the 
movement which began in Stavanger in 1825, and which in 
the years 1834-36 resulted in the formation of the Fox 
River settlement in La Salle County, Illinois. This settle- 
ment then became the center of dispersion for what may be 
called the southern line of settlements. All through the 
forties and the fifties the southern course of migration 
westward, which includes southern and central Iowa, stands 
in direct relation to early Norwegian colonization in New 
York and Illinois — that is, the first period of Norwegian 
emigration from the provinces of Stavanger and South 
Bergenhus (and in this province only as far north as Bergen, 
Yoss being excluded) in southwestern and western Norway. 
In 1839 the first settlement is formed in AYisconsin on the 
shores of Lake Muskego in Waukesha County ; and in Rock, 
Jefferson, and Dane counties in 1839-40. These settle- 
ments then became the northern point of dispersion. From 
here we have a second northern line of settlement westward 
and northwestward into northern Iowa and Minnesota. 

The leaders of the emigration from Telemarken were the 
Luraas family, which was represented by four heads of fam- 
ilies — in all about twenty persons out of a party of forty, 
composed almost exclusively of grown men and women. 
These all came from Tin and Hjertdal parishes in Upper 
Telemarken. They embarked at Skien, May 17, 1839, 
sailing by the way of Gothenberg, Sweden, and Boston. 
The voyage across the Atlantic took nine weeks; and the 
journey to Milwaukee lasted another three weeks. The 



49 

latter led by way of New York and then by canal boats 
pulled by horses to Buffalo; thence by way of the Great 
Lakes to Milwaukee. This was a common westward route 
for the early settlers. It was the intention of the emigrants 
to settle in La Salle County, Illinois; but in Milwaukee 
they were induced to remain in Wisconsin, and a site for a 
settlement was selected near Lake Muskego in the southern 
part of Milwaukee County, about twenty miles southwest 
from Milwaukee. ^ 

In the selection of this first locality the colonists were not 
fortunate; for the land was low and the conditions very 
unhealthful. But in the following year the settlement was 
extended south into Racine County where, especially in the 
townships of Norway, Waterford, Raymond, and Yorkville, 
there grew up one of the most prosperous of early Norwe- 
gian settlements in Wisconsin. Thus Dietrichsen writes in 
1844^ that the population was six hundred. The founders 
of this South Muskego, or Racine County settlement were 
John N. Luraas, Torger O. Luraas, Halvor O. Luraas, 
Knudt Luraas, Soren Bache, Johannes Johanneson,^ Mons 
Aadland, Nelson Johnson Kaasa and his brother Grjermund 
Kaasa.'* The last two were from Hitterdal in Upper Tele- 
marken, while Bache and Johanneson came from Drammen 
and Aadland from Bergen. All these came in 1839, 
although Aadland lived a year in the Fox River settlement 
before he came to Muskego. Among the prominent pio- 



' At that time a town of only a few hundred inhabitants. 
* In Eeise blandt de norske Emigranter. 

» There seems to be some uncertainty as to whether Bache and Johanneson set- 
tled in Kacine County late in the fall of 1839 or in the following spring. 

'' The two Kaasa brothers settled in Winneshiek County, Iowa, in July, 1850. 



50 

neers of this settlement should be mentioned John J. Dahle 
from Bergen, Norway, and also the Haugian lay preacher, 
Elling Eielson Sunve,^ from Yoss, Norway. 

About the time of the founding of the Muskego settle- 
ment, that is, in the fall of 1839 (but evidently a little later) 
was formed the so-called Jefferson Prairie settlement some- 
what farther west. The location of this latter settlement 
was Clinton township in southeastern Rock County and the 
town of Manchester in Boone County, Illinois. As early 
as 1838 Ole K. Nattestad^ had located in Clinton town- 
ship. He is, therefore, probably the first Norwegian to 
settle in Wisconsin. For a year Nattestad was the only 
Norwegian in the settlement. His brother Ansten Nat- 
testad^ had returned to Norway upon a visit in 1838. His 
return to Norway gave the first impulse to the emigration 
movement in his native province of Numedal.^ In the fol- 
lowing year he brought back to America with him, by 
way of Drammen and New York to Chicago, one hundred 
emigrants;^ and most of these went to Jefferson Prairie. 
The founders of this settlement were, besides the two Nat- 
testad brothers: Hans Gjermundson Haugen, Thore Kirke- 
jord, Jens Gudrandson Myhra, Gudbrand Myhra, ^ Thorsten 



I Eielson emigrated in 1839 and settled first in La Salle County, Illinois (Nel- 
son's, History of Scandinavians, p. 177), with which settlement he is most closely 
associated. 

* Ole Nattestad emigrated from Vtegli in Numedal, Norway, in 1837, and lived 
a year in Beaver Creek, Illinois, see above, p. 44. See also Nelson's History of 
Scandinavians, Vol. II, p. 107; and Scandinavia, p. 65. 

* He had come in 1837. — See Scandinavia, Vol, I, p. Go. 

* See above, p. 47. Nattestad writes that many came twenty Norwegian miles 
to talk with him about America. 

8 Each emigrant paid a passage of •'$33.50. 

•Jens and Gudbrand Myhra removed to Iowa, settling in Mitchell County. 



51 

Kirkejord, Erik G. Skavlem, and Kittel Kristopher Njhus, 
all of whom were from Numedal. 

At the close of the year 1839 a colony was established in 
Rock Run, forty miles southwest in Stephenson County, 
Illinois. This was closely related with the Jefferson Prairie 
settlement on the north. The founder of the settlement 
was Klemet Stabaek. From the same time also dates the 
Luther Valley or Rock Prairie settlement in Plymouth, 
Newark, Avon, and Spring Valley townships in southwest- 
ern Rock County, Wisconsin. The first settlers here were 
chiefly men who came in Nattestad's party. ^ Particularly 
prominent in the earliest history of the colony is the name 
Gullik O. GravdahL' He was one of the first to locate on 
Rock Prairie, and he built the first log-house in the settle- 
ment. The party that followed Gravdahl to this colony 
seem to have been mostly of the Haugian belief; the major- 
ity came from Numedal, Land, and Hallingdal, but a few 
were from Sogn and Valders. Among them were Lars 
Roste (from Land), Gisle Halland, Goe Bjono, and Hellek 
Glaim. 

The last in this group of early Wisconsin settlements, and 
dating back to 1839-10, is the well known one on Koshko- 
nong Prairie in Dane County. This lies about forty miles 
north of the Rock Prairie settlement and eighty miles west 
from Milwaukee. Actual settling did not take place before 
1840, but a party of Norwegians, namely. Nils S. Gilder- 
hus. Nils Larsen Bolstad, and Od. J. Himle,^ visited Chris- 



* It may be regarded as a western extension of the Jefferson Prairie settlement. 

* He emigrated from Vasgli, Numedal. He was born 1802 and died in 1873, a 
very wealthy farmer in Rock County. 

' He returned to Jefferson Prairie in 1839. 



52 

tiana and Deei-field townships late in 1839. These two 
men, along with many of the earliest settlers on Koshko- 
nong, were from Voss, Norway. 

To emigrants from Voss belongs the credit of having 
located this garden spot in Wisconsin where later grew 
up the most prosperous and influential of Norwegian (per- 
haps of Scandinavian) rural communities in America. The 
first settlement was formed in 1840. In that year the two 
named Vossings, Nils Gilderhus and Nils Bolstad, located 
in what is now Deei-field township;^ and Anders Finno and 
Magne B. Bystol settled in Christiana township. Another 
settler of that year is Gunnul O. Yindeig,- who named the 
town Christiania^ after Christiania, Norway. The town of 
Albion was also settled that same year by Norwegians, the 
first of whom were: Amund A. Hornefjeld, Bjorn Ander- 
son Kvelve,* Thorstein O. Bjaaland and Lars O. Dugstad. 
Bjaaland we have already met with among the sloopers of 
1825. He is the only one of the sloop party who later set- 
tled in Wisconsin. He and Hornefjeld and Kvelve were, as 
far as can be ascertained, the only immigrants from Stav- 
anger County among the early settlers on Koshkonong. 
The Stavanger immigrants belong very largely to the south- 
ern line of settlements. It was principally Voss and Nume- 
dal, Sogn and Telemarken that contributed to the Koshko- 

* See Bydgejcevning, Madison, 1902, p. 42. Article by Nels A. Lee on the Voss- 
ings in America. 

* Gunnul Vindeig came from Numedal as did many others of the founders of 
the Dane County settlements. The year he settled in Dane County was not 1838, 
as given in Scandinavia, p. 66. 

» Later shortened to Christiana. 

* Bjorn Kvelve was from Stavanger. He is the father of Rasmus B. Anderson, 
author, and minister (under Cleveland) to Denmark. At present he is editor of 
Amerika, Madison, Wisconsin. 



53 

Tiong settlements. In general these may be said to extend 
from the Rock County line through the eastern half of Dane 
County as far as the village of Deei*iield, and east into the 
adjacent towns of Jefferson County. Among Koshkonong's 
early pioneers I may name also John H. Bjorgo, Jens Ped- 
ersen Vehus,^ and Hans Funkelien.^ Finally, among the 
emigrants from Yoss, whose representatives hold a very 
prominent place in the early history of the settlement, espe- 
cially in the town of Deerfield, I wish to name Kolbein 
Saue, Stork Saue, Lars Davidson Rekve, Anfin Leidal, Lars 
Ygre, Gulleik Saue,^ and Anders N. Lee.^ 

A Vossing colony was at the same time established in 
Chicago; and Chicago and the town of Deerfield in Dane 
County became Vossing centers in the early days. No sec- 
tion of Norway has contributed sturdier stock to the Amer- 
ican population than Yoss, and they hold a very important 
place in Norwegian-American History. Of prominent de- 
scendants of these early immigrants I shall here name only 
Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, Professor Lars S. 
Reque, Decorah, Iowa, Ex-Consul to Holland, Hon. Torger 
G. Thompson, Cambridge, Wisconsin, Yictor F. Lawson 
(Larson), publisher of the Chicago JS^ews^ and John Ander- 
son, publisher of Sccoulinaven* Chicago. The Sognings 
and the Telemarkings of the AYisconsin settlements, have 
also contributed many names to the honor roll of prominent 
Norwegians in America. Congressman Martin N. Johnson, 

1 These two came from Numedal in 18J2. 

2 A son, Hon. Torger Thompson, is still living on the old homestead. 

* Loe and Saue lived for some time in Chicago as did many of the Vossings. 

* Norwegian weekly, bi-weekly, and daily. Scandinaven is politically probably 
the most influential Norwegian paper in the country. 



54 

of jN'orth Dakota, is a Telemarking/ as are B. Anundson,^ 
publisher of Decorali-Posten^ Decorah, Iowa, and P. O. 
Stromme, author and well-known journalist; while Hon. 
Atley Peterson and Governor James L. Davidson, of Wis- 
consin, came from Sogn.^ Among early settlements those 
of Koshkonong deserve special notice partly because of the 
very important place they hold in Norwegian -American his- 
tory,^ but especially, and that which is more immediate to 
our purpose, because they (together with the Rock County 
settlement) stand in such close relation to the earliest Nor- 
wegian colonies in Northeastern Iowa, the section which has 
ever been educationally and culturally the center of Norwe- 
gian influence in the State. ^ 

The Norwegian settlements that were formed before IS-iO 
and that antedate Scandinavian colonization in Iowa are then 
in order: (1) 1825, Orleans County, New York; (2) 1834- 
35, La Salle County, Illinois; (3) 1837, Iro(|uois County, 
Illinois; (4) 1837, Chicago, Illinois; (5) 1839, Milwaukee 
and Eacine counties, Wisconsin; (6) 1839, Eastern Rock 
County, Wisconsin, and Boone County, Illinois; (7) 1839, 
Stephenson County, Illinois; (8) 1839, Western Rock 
County, Wisconsin; and (9) 1839-40, Dane County, Wis- 
consin. From the last eight as centers of disj^ersion, took 

1 Congressman Johnson is a son of Nelson Johnson Kaasa, who settled in Racine 
County, Wisconsin, in 1839. He became in 1350 one of the founders of the first 
Norwegian settlement in AVinneshiek County, Iowa — the Washington Prairie set- 
tlement. — See above, p. 49, note 4. M. N. Johnson's mother was from Voss. 

* I\Ir. Anundson moved from La Crosse, Wisconsin to Decorah, Iowa in 1868. 

s On early immigration from Sogn, see article by John Ollis in Bygdejcevning. 

* A short account of the Norwegians in Wisconsin appeared in the Minneapolis 
Tidende for April 7, 1005, p. 8. 

^ I shall elsewhere at a later time discuss more fully the contribution of the 
various provinces of Norway to Norwegian-American cultural history. 



55 

place all subsequent early colonization in northern Mis- 
souri, Iowa, Minnesota, and northern Wisconsin, as Iowa 
and Minnesota at a later date furnished the large share of 
colonists to Nebraska, northwestern Minnesota, and the 
Dakotas. 

A glance at Map II will indicate the course of migration 
into the territory west of the iirst settlements. It will show 
that the northern tier of counties in Iowa forms a continuous 
westward line of settlement with principally the sixth, 
eighth, and ninth settlements (see above) in southern Wis- 
consin as their point of departure. The southern and the 
central colonies in Iowa trace back to the old Fox River 
settlement as the starting point. Those in the second tier 
of counties, beginning with Clayton, are in part from both, 
but more especially from the State line settlements between 
Illinois and AVisconsin (six, seven, and eight above). In 
the western part of the State these three lines of settlement 
meet in Webster, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Buena Vista, and 
Cherokee counties. 

THE EARLIEST ISTORWEGIAIN' SETTLEMENT IN IOWA ITS FOUND- 
ERS, ITS CHARACTER, ITS GROWTH, AND ITS RELATION 
TO LATER WESTWARD COLONIZATION 

AVe have above ^ referred to the fact that in 1837 a party 
of colonists from La Salle County, Illinois, traveled south- 
west as far as Shelby County, in northwestern Missouri, 
and founded there a small settlement. The same restless 
Kleng Peerson, who left Norway four years before the de- 
parture of the "Restaurationen" in 1825, who probably 

1 Pasre 45. 



56 

made a journey to the then wild West as much as a dozen 
years before the planting of the first Norwegian colony in 
the West, and who selected the site of the Fox River settle- 
ment in 1833, was also the leader of this movement.^ In 
company with him were the two brothers, Jakob and Knud 
Slogvig, Anders Askeland, Andrew Simonsen, and about 
ten others. The locality had evidently been chosen by 
Peerson on an excursion into Missouri the preceding year. 
At that time, it seems, he passed through southeastern lowa,^ 
and was, therefore, probably the first Norwegian to visit 
Iowa. The Missouri colony received some accessions from 
Norway in 1839. These came with Kleng Peerson, who in 
1838 made a journey to Norway for the special purpose of 
recruiting the colony. The locality was unfavorable, chiefly 
on account of the distance to a market; the country was also 
low and the settlers were much afilicted with sickness at 
first. As early as the spring of 1810 the colony began to 
break up.^ 

Iowa had been organized as a Territory in 1838. The 
settlers in Shelby County, Missouri, were dissatisfied, and 
having heard of the natural resources of the Territory of 



* A sketch of his life was first printed in Billed-Magazin, 1875. See also Scandi- 
navia (Chicago), January, 1884, p. 64. A fuller account containing an interest- 
ing letter from Mrs. Bishop Sarah A. Petersen, of Ephraim, Utah, is printed in 
First Chapter of Norioegian Immigration^ pp. 179-193. Mrs. Petersen was the 
daughter of the slooper, Cornelius Nelson, and a niece of Kleng Peerson. Peer- 
son's last name was Hesthammer, which he dropped in this country. He was 
born in Tysvaer, Skjold Parish, near Stavanger, Norway. He lived for a time in 
the Swedish communistic colony at Bishop's Hill, Henry County, Illinois, and 
removed, probably 1849, to Texas. He died at Norse, Bosque County, in that 
State, December 16, 1865. 

« B. L. Wick, in Bepubiikaneren for February 9, 1900. 

» Jakob Slogvig and Askeland had returned to La Salle County, Illinois, in 
1838. 



57 

Iowa immediately to the north and that good land with a 
near market could be had in the southeastern part of the 
Territory, they decided to move to Iowa. Going north- 
east into Lee County, Iowa, they located at a place six 
miles northwest of Keokuk, known as Sugar Creek. An- 
drew Simonsen and most of the settlers in Shelby County 
came at that time ; but Peerson remained in Missouri. Here, 
however, they found a colony of Norwegians who had, it 
seems, but recently established themselves. With the ex- 
ception of one to be mentioned below, it is not known who 
these earlier settlers were, and I have not been able to ascer- 
tain where they came from. 

Kleng Peerson has been accredited with being the foun- 
der also of the Sugar Creek settlement, but there is no 
proof that he previously selected the site or even that he 
was with the party who located there in 1840. Indeed the 
evidence goes rather to show that he never actually settled 
at Sugar Creek. His home in the following years was prob- 
ably chiefly in Shelby County, Missouri; in 1847 he sold 
his land there and joined the Swedish colony in Henry 
County, Illinois, vv'hich had been founded in 1846.^ Nor 
does it seem to me that Hans Barlien was a member of the 
Missouri colony, as Professor Anderson suggests. No men- 
tion of Barlien can be found in connection with the Shelby 
County colony or any other settlement. It seems more 
probable that he went to the Fox River settlement when he 
came from Norway in 1837; but with a few others left in 
1840, coming to Lee County somewhat before the party 



1 See above, p. 11, note 1, and p. 5G, note 1. 



58 

that came with iVndrew Simonsen from Shelby County. 
They may originally have received their knowledge of this 
locality from Peerson. Barlien himself may have been in 
La Salle County when Peerson in 1837 returned from his 
journey through that very part of lov/a and into Missouri. 
It was, then, Barlien and a few immigrants with him whom 
Andrew Simonsen and others from Shelby County found 
already settled at Sugar Creek in the spring of 1840. If 
this is correct then the first Norwegian settler in Iowa and 
the real founder of the first Norwegian colony in the State 
is Hans Barlien, who was born at Overhalden in the pro- 
vince of Trondhjem about 1780.^ 

As far as known, the first settlers who came with Andrew 
Simonsen from Missouri were: Omund Olson, Knud Slog- 
vig,2 Lars Tallakson, Jacob O. Hetletvedt, Peter Gjilje, 
Erik Oie, and Ole Oiesoen. Lars Tallakson settled there 
about the same time, but he came from Clark County, Mis- 
souri, where he had located in 1838. Gjermund Helgeson^ 
and Eric Knudson, who had settled in the Muskego Colony, 
Wisconsin, in 1839, were also among the earliest settlers. 

The leading spirit in the colony was undoubtedly Hans 
Barlien. He was a man of great natural endowment, and 
he had a fair education. In Norway he had been a pro- 
nounced nationalist of the AVergeland direction and had 
taken part in the first j^easant U2:>rising. He was for a time 
a member of the Storthing (the national parliament). In 



1 Jakob Slogvig was also among the first settlers; but see note 3, p. 56. 
« Helgeson may have come with Barlien from Illinois. 

' According to a letter from his widow, Hannah Knudson, now residing in 
West Branch, Cedar County, Iowa. 



59 

religion he was a liberal, which aroused the hostility of 
the clergy; while his radical political views called forth 
the enmity of the official class. He owned a printing 
establishment at Overgaarden, and published a paper ^ in 
which he did not hesitate to give expression to the principles 
for which he stood. This frecpently involved him in litiga- 
tion; and, feeling himself persecuted, he at last decided to 
emigrate to America in 1837.^ Barlien seems to be the 
second Norwegian emigrant from Trondhjem.^ Lars Tal- 
lakson came from Bergen, while the rest of the colonists 
w^ere mostly from the region of Stavanger. 

Lee County was but little settled at that time;* land was 
bought of the Indians for a nominal price, but it often be- 
came expensive enough in the end since it proved very diffi- 
cult for many of the settlers to obtain a clear title from the 
United States. This is one reason why the settlement did not 
grow, though probably not the chief cause. ^ In 1843 there 
were between thirty and forty families, writes John Reier- 
son,^ but in 1856 there were according to the census of that 
year only sixty- eight Norwegians in the county. This num- 
ber had in 1885 decreased to thirty-one. In the fifties many 
of the settlers moved to other localities, but throughout the 
forties there was a prosperous colony that contributed not a 



1 Melkeveien, the Milky Way. 

' See J. B. Wist, in Bygdejcevning , Madison, Wisconsin, 1903, p. 158; also 
First Chapter of Norioegian Immigration, pp. 2.S5-236, and Eepiihlikaneren, Feb- 
raary 9, 1900. 

8 The first was Ole Rynning. See above, p. 16, and Nordmcendene i Amerika by 
Knud Langeland, pp. 26-29. 

''The first postoffice was establi.shed in Lee County in 1841. 

« See p. 62. 

8 Veiviser for Emigranter, 1843. 



60 

little to the development of the commimity and the county 
in that early period. The settlement is of special interest 
in that it was the first Norwegian settlement in Iowa. Its 
founding inaugurated Norwegian colonization in the State 
Avhich, particularly in the fifties, resulted in the establish- 
ment of a score of extensive settlements in the central and 
the northern counties. 

There are many reasons why the Sugar Creek settlement 
did not grow as did the later settlements north and west. 
First of all, land was not of the best in Lee County. And 
then, the locality was rather too far south — Norwegians have 
everywhere in America thriven best in the more northerly 
localities.-^ Again, the tide of emigration from the Stavanger 
province was not sufficiently heavy to recruit the various 
settlements already established by immigrants from that re- 
gion. The majority of those who came went direct to the Fox 
River settlement in northern Illinois, which offered unsur- 
passed natural advantages. To be sure, the Shelby County 
(Missouri) and the Lee County settlements might have been 
recruited from other districts in Norway. But it must be 
remembered that such other districts as had begun to take 
part in the emigration movement had their attention directed 
just at this time in another direction. The other provinces 
in question are Voss, Telemarken, and Numedal. It was 
representatives of these that founded the Wisconsin settle- 
ments in 1839-40, and in them the great majority of immi- 
grants from those provinces located in the following decade.^ 



1 See above, pp. 31, 32. 

» See discussion of those settlements above, pp. 51-53. 



61 

This is also true of those who came from Sogn,^ Hardan- 
ger, and from western Norway in general. 

There is still another reason why the colony did not grow. 
Beyond the common desire of material betterment, there 
was too little of community of interest. It is enough to 
mention that several different religious sects were repre- 
sented in the little settlement, chief among which were the 
Quakers and the Latter Day Saints. Just across the Mis- 
sissippi was the town of Nauvoo,^ which was a Mormon 
center at the time. When the Mormons who did not be- 
lieve in polygamy established themselves at Lamoni some 
years later, many Norwegians of that belief went with them.^ 
And not a few of the Quakers joined American Quaker set- 
tlements farther north, as in Salem, Henry County. In the 
later fifties a prosperous colony was founded at and south of 
Legrand in Marshall County. A few of the early pioneers, 
however, remained and their descendants live in Lee County 
to-day. Finally, the difficulty of securing a title to the land 
upon which many Norwegians had settled, to which refer- 
ence has been made above, undoubtedly drove many to 
seek homes elsewhere."* 



> Immigration from Sogn began in 1842 and was at first directed almost exclus- 
ively to Dane County, Wisconsin. 

* In the Fox River settlement in Illinois many Norwegians joined the Mor- 
mons and later moved to Utah. Bishop Canute Peterson was one of these. 

' The Mormons first moved into Iowa in 1839, having received assurance of 
protection and the liberty to practice their belief from Governor Lucas in that 
year. They located in Lee County not far from Sugar Creek. The town of 
Nauvoo, Illinois, had been bought by them. The name was changed from Com- 
merce. 

* The question has been investigated somewhat by Mr. B. L. Wick. See Re- 
publikaneren, February 9, 1900, to which article the reader is referred. 




Map II. Centers of Dispersion and Course of Migration of the Norwegians 



64 

KORWEGIAISr IMMIGRATION INTO NORTHEASTERN IOWA. THE 
FOUNDERS OF THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS. OTHER COL- 
ONIES ESTABLISHED BETWEEN 1850 AND 1853. THE 
COURSE OF SETTLEMENT. CONCLUSION 

The Fox River settlement in Illinois had been formed in 
1834-35. The exodus from southwestern and western Nor- 
way in 1836-40 brought hundreds of immigrants to the 
colony. In a few years the best lands had been taken and 
many began to look about in search of new localities farther 
west. A similar movement took j)lace farther north a few 
years later. Between 1840 and 1850 the south Wisconsin set- 
tlements, established in 1839-40,^ developed into prosperous 
communities. For a decade they continued to receive acces- 
sions from western and south central Norway; but the prin- 
cipal period of immigrant colonization was the years 1839— 
50. In later years these settlements became stations-on- 
the-way for a very large number of immigrants who came 
and located farther west and north. Several new colonies 
had in the meantime been formed — as for example in west- 
ern Dane County, and at Mineral Point and Wiota in Iowa 
County.^ BetAveen 1849 and 1860 the westward movement 
of Norwegian immigration was directed especially to northern 
Iowa and southwestern Minnesota — in Iowa from Allamakee 
and Clayton counties on the east to Forest City and Lake 
Mills in Winnebago County on the west. During the same 
years, but beginning a little later, there was also established 
a number of settlements in central Iowa. In their early 
history, however, these stand entirely isolated from those 



' See above, pp. 51-53. 

* These and a few farther north are given by Dietrichsen, p. 24. 



65 

in the northern counties. Finally those in the western part 
of the State are, for the most part, the result of internal 
immigration from the older to the newer parts of the State. 

The first county settled by Norwegians in northeastern 
Iowa was Clayton. The earliest settler w^as Ole Valle. He 
came in 1846 and located in Reed township a little south of 
the present St. Olaf. In 18 -1:6 Ole Tollefson Kittilsland 
came and located in Reed township.^ The period of settle- 
ment does not actually begin, however, before 1849. In 
the spring of that year Ole Herbrandson and family settled 
in the same place. The Clermont settlement in the western 
part of the county was begun in June, 1849; the first settler 
was Halvor Nilson.^ This settlement soon grew westward 
into Fayette County and northward through Fayette into 
AVinneshiek County. To Clermont in the same year came 
Tallak Gunderson and family, Knut Hustad, Jens A. Holt, 
Brede Holt, Halstein Groth, Kittel Rue, Abraham Rustad, 
and several others; while Helge Ramstad and wife, Ole 
Hanson and wife, Thorkel Eiteldep, and Embrigt Sanden 
located in the Norway settlement in Reed township.^ At 
present Norway and Clermont form one continuous settle- 
ment westward into Fayette County. 

The founders of these settlements all came from Wiscon- 
sin, particularly from Rock County,^ where they had lived 
the first few years after coming from Norway. In the years 
1850-53 a large number of immigrants joined the colony, 



' See article by Rev. Jacob Tanner on En kort Beretning om 50 Aar& Kirkellgt 
Arheide i Clayton Co., Iowa, in Lutheraneren, 45 (1901). These names are 
taken from Rev. Tanner's article. 

* In Reed township. 

» Tanner's article. 



66 

but in the very beginning of this period the movement was 
directed to the counties in the northern part of the State — 
i. e.^ to Allamakee and Winneshiek counties. The immi- 
gration of Norwegians into Clayton County had practically 
ceased by 1855, the chief reason for this probably being 
that the Germans came in very large numbers, particularly 
to Clayton County, during the early fifties and soon occu- 
pied all the best land.^ Northeastern Iowa was but little 
settled, and the development of the wilderness had only be- 
gun. Clayton County had in 1850 a population of three 
thousand eight hundred and seventy -three, while Fayette 
had only eight hundred and twenty-five, and Allamakee 
seven hundred and seventy-seven. The population of Win- 
neshiek County had reached four thousand nine hundred and 
fifty-seven. 

Allamakee was the next county in order of settlement.^ 
This county was opened to settlement in 1848, but land was 
not put upon the market before 1850.^ In the summer of 
that year a considerable number of Norwegians had come 
from Wisconsin and settled on the prairie north of Paint 
Creek, living in their canvas covered wagons until houses 
were built.* The early settlers of Allamakee and neighbor- 



1 Rev. Tanner writes: " When we look at this Norwegian settlement as it was 
then and is to-day largely, it immediately strikes us that it was wood and water 
the colonists looked for, and therefore they let the prarie lie and chose the hills 
along the Turkey River. Not until later did they learn to understand the value 
of the prairie, but then the Germans had taken most of it." 

* The Fayette County settlement about Clermont is a western extension of the 
second settlement in Clayton County; its beginnings have been referred to above. 

* The first entry of purchase appears under the date of October 7, 1850. 

* There were, it seems, Norwegians in the county as early as 1849 or perhaps 
1848; but I have not been able to ascertain their names or any facts with regard 
to them. The earliest settler in the county was Henry Johnson, after whom 
Johnsonsport was named, but I do not know to what nationality he belonged. 



G'7 

ing counties experienced all the trials and hardships of pio- 
neer life in an unsettled country. There was no railroad 
nearer than Milwaukee. At McGregor there were a few 
stores where the necessaries of life could be had. ^ 

The process of home building and the clearing of the for- 
ests was slow and often attended with many difficulties. 
The pioneers generally brought with them no other wealth 
than stout hearts and strong hands, and it was only by 
industry and severe economy that they were able to make a 
living for themselves and their families. Those who hired 
for pay to others received very small wages, and as there 
was little money among the pioneer farmers it was paid in 
large part in food or other articles. It may serve as an 
illustration that in the winter of 1850-51 a pioneer in 
Clayton County^ split seven thousand rails of wood for 
fifty cents a hundred; for this he was paid $3.50 in cash 
and the remainder in food. The Red Man was the White 
Man's neighbor in those days, but the Scandinavian fron- 
tiersman was never in all the history of colonization mo- 
lested by the Indian. He succeeded in a remarkable de- 
gree in gaining the Red Man's confidence. And so, whether 
as a colonist in New Sweden in the seventeenth century or a 
pioneer in the forests or on the prairies of the West in the 
nineteenth century, he never had the difficulty* which many 
have experienced in preserving pacific relatiojis with the 
natives. 

Most of the Norwegians who settled in Allamakee County 
came from Dane County, AVisconsin; but I believe, some 



1 In the Clermont settlement there was a log-cabin store at Clermont. 

2 This pioneer is still living. — See Tanner's article. 



68 

came a little later from AVinnesliiek County where a settle- 
ment liad been formed in June, 1850. Several, however, 
came from Norway by way of New Orleans and the Missis- 
sippi, as did Gilbert C. Lyse in 1851. 

In 1856 there were in the whole county iive hundred and 
five Norwegians; one hundred and eighty-one of these had 
settled in Paint Creek (then Waterville) township, the 
rest being located mostly in the neighboring towns of 
Center, La Fayette, Taylor, Jefferson, and Makee. In the 
meantime a new settlement had been established in the 
northwestern part of the county, in Hanover and Waterloo, 
which soon extended into Winneshiek County. But the 
earliest Norwegian settlement in Winneshiek was formed 
on Washington Prairie in June, 1850,^ when a number of 
families moved in from Racine and Dane counties, Wiscon- 
sin. Eastern AYinneshiek County received in the following 
year a large Norwegian population. In a few years the east- 
ern, northeastern, and central part of the county grew to be 
the chief Norwegian community in that section of the State, 
and it has ever since held a very prominent place among 
Norwegian settlements in Iowa. Through the location of 
Luther College^ in 1862, it became an educational center for 
. a large part of the Norwegian northwest. 

Those who came in June, 1850, and settled on Washing- 



* White people first settled in the county in 1848. The county was organized 
in 1850, and the first term of court convened on October 5, 1851. 

* The chief educational institution of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran 
sj'nod. The Norwegian Lutherans in America are divided into several branches, 
of which the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America and the Norwegian 
Evangelical Lutheran Synod of America are in order the largest. 



69 

ton Prairie were: Erik Anderson (Kndi)/ tlie brothers Ole 
and Staale Torstenson llaugen, Ole Gullickson Jevne, O. 
A. Lomen, Knnt A. Bakka, Anders Haiige, John J. Quale, 
II. Ilalvorsen drove, and Mikkel Omli. These came from 
Eacine and Dane counties, Wisconsin. In the following 
month Tollef Simonson, Knud Opdahl, Jacob Abrahamson,^ 
Iver P. Quale, and the two brothers, Nelson Johnson^ and 
Gjermund Johnson Kaasa settled in Springfield and Decorah 
townships. These settlers were chiefly from Voss, Tele- 
marken, Sogn, and Valders, Norway, and most of them had 
emigrated in 1848-49.'* 

From the towns of Springfield, Decorah, and Glenwood 
the settlement soon spread into the neighboring towns — 
north into Canoe, Hesper, and Highland, where it united 
with the settlement in northwestern Allamakee County, and 
south through the towns of Calmar and Military, uniting 
with the settlements in north central Fayette County (Dover 
township). This last settlement extends through Pleasant 
Valley southward into Clayton County. Together these 
settlements form one connecting link from the eastern part 
of Clayton County, west through Fayette, and north through 



1 Erik Anderson, avIio is still livinp: in Decorali, had come from Norway in 
1839, learned the printer's trade in Chicago, and was the one who set the tyi^e for 
the first Norwegian paper in America, Nordlyset, (The Northern Light) pub- 
lished first in Norway, Kacine County, later in Kacine, 1847-1851. 

* The father of Hon. Abraham Jakobson. 

3 The father of Martin N. Johnson, member of Congress from North Dakota. 
Nelson Johnson Avas one of the founders of the Muskego settlement in Wisconsin 
in 1830. He later entered the Methodist ministry and was for two years, 18;j.'3- 
57, pastor of the Norwegian M. E. Church in Cambridge, Wisconsin. With the 
exception of the.se two years he lived in Winneshiek County until his death in 
1882. 

'I Letters from Hon. Abraham Jakobson, to whom I am chielly indebted for 
facts on the early .settlement of Winneshiek County. 



70 

Winneshiek to northern Allamakee. In Allamakee it ex- 
tends as far as Harpers Ferry and Lansing.^ The bulk of 
the population, however, resides in Winneshiek County. 
The principal Norwegian townships are at present: Glen- 
wood, Decorah, Springfield, Highland, and Madison. About 
half of the population of the county is of Norwegian birth 
or descent. 

Mitchell County was first settled by E. Olson Stovern in 
1851, near the present site of St. Ansgar. It was, there- 
fore, the sixth county in the order of settlement. The real 
founder of the extensive colony which was soon established 
at this point was, however, Rev. C. L. Clausen,^ who with 
twenty families, besides a number of unmarried men, came 
from Rock County, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1852.^ 
Rev. Clausen was, with Rev. A. C. Preus* and Rev. H. C. 
Stub,^ the founder of the first organization of Norv/egian 



1 The intermediate strip of territory including northern Clayton County and 
the northern tier of townships in Allamakee has only scattered Norwegian set- 
tlers. 

* Rev. Clausen was a Dane by birth but he is identified exclusively with Nor- 
wegian-American history. He was born in Fyen, Denmark, in 1820, came to 
Norway in 1841 and emigrated to America in 1843. 

* See Biography of Rev. Clausen in Nelson's History of Scandinavians, Vol. I, 
pp. 387—301. There is also a sketch with portrait of Rev. Clausen in Anderson's 
First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, pp. 417-420. Nelson gives the follow- 
ing interesting account of the coming of these settlers: — " Clausen had visited 
Iowa in 18-51, and the next year in the spring, he and about twenty families, be- 
sides several unmarried men left Rock County, Wisconsin. In order to avoid 
confusion in marching such a large number in one body the crowd was divided 
into two sections, Clausen himself and family, being thesonly persons who rode 
in a cai'riage, led in advance. T>e caravan consisted of numerous children and 
women in wagons, men on foot, and two or three hundred cattle — all obeying the 
command of the leader. Most of these immigrants settled at St. Ansgar, Mitch- 
ell County." 

* From Agder, Norway, came to America in 1850. 

* From Strileland, Norway, came to America in 1848. 



71 

Lutherans in America on Rock Prairie, Wisconsin, Janu- 
ary 4, 1851.^ This organization developed into the Nor- 
wegian Lutheran synod of America in East Koshkonong 
Church, Dane County, Wisconsin, February 5, 1853.^ 

In June, 1853, Gudbrand Olson Mellum and wife, and 
three others, went vv^est from St. Ansgar, going as far as 
the Shell Rock River, where they secured one hundred and 
sixty acres of land, embracing a part of the present site of 
Northwood.^ They were the first white settlers in Worth 
County.* In the spring of 1854 came Simon Rustad, Chris- 
tian Ammandson, Ole Lee, and Aslag Gullickson.* Among 
the early settlers were Nels and Carrie Haugen, who came 
from Rock County, Wisconsin.^ Since 1856 Worth County 
has received a considerable accession of Norwegian settlers; 
to-day it has the fourth largest Norwegian population among 
the counties of the State. 

Winnebago County, the next county to the west, was 
first settled in 1855, but received no important accessions 
until 1865. At present, however, it has next to Winneshiek 
County, the most extensive Norwegian population in the 
State. ^ The very important settlements in Story and sur- 



» See Kort Uddrag af Den norske Synodes Historie, by Rev. Jacob Aal Otteson, 
Decorah, 1893, p. 12. 

* In 1851—53 Rev. Clausen was its President or " Superintendent." 

« Mrs. Mellum is still living. Ole Mellum, son of Gudbrand Mellum, was the 
first white child born in Worth County. 

4 Letter from Mr. Gilbert N. Ilaugen, from Northwood, Iowa. 

B They immigrated from Hallingdal, Norway, in 184G, settling in Rock County, 
Wisconsin. They were the parents of Hon. Gilbert N. Haugen, member of 
Congre.ss. 

« Many of the early settlers in Worth and Winnebago counties came from Hal- 
lingdal. This province has contributed .some of the most honored names to Nor- 
wegian-American History— as Gilbert N. Haugen, Member of Congress from 



rounding counties date back to 1855 and the years follow- 
ing; while Florence township, Benton County, was first set- 
tled by Norwegians in 1854-57. These settlements, there- 
fore, are not within the period covered by this brief sketch. 

The settlements we have discussed soon developed into 
prosperous communities. In 1856 their total population 
was 2,529; and in the meantime new settlements were grow- 
ing up around them and the lines of settlements in central 
Iowa had been established. 

We have in these pages traced the beginnings of Norwe- 
gian colonization in Iowa from 1840 to 1853. In the later 
fifties and the sixties most of the counties to the west were 
settled by Norwegians, the western parts of the State being 
settled as late even as the eighties. The period of heaviest 
immigration into Iowa was, however, closed long before 
that date.^ Since the early nineties Norway has contributed 
comparatively little to the population of Iowa. The west- 
ward course of migration has carried the Norwegian immi- 
gration beyond the borders of the State of Iowa ; a new gen- 
eration has sprung up to enjoy the fruits of the labors of 
Iowa's sturdy pioneers. 



Iowa; G. S. Gilbertson, of Forest City, Iowa, State Treasurer of Iowa, and Prof.. 
Lauritz S. Swenson, of Albert Lea, Minn., Minister to Denmark. 

' Tire State census for 1895 shows a larger population of foreign born Norwe- 
gians than for the preceding or the following census, but the increase is slight 
since 1885. The figures are 24,107 for 1885, while for 1895 they reach 27,428. 
But according to the United States census in 1900 they are only 25,G34. 



THE EARLY SWEDISH IMMIGRATION TO IOWA 

SWEDES IN THE UNITED STATES BEFOKE 18-11. GUSTAF UNON- 

lUS AND THE PINE LAKE, WISCONSIN, SETTLEMENT. THE 

FIRST SWEDISH SETTLERS IN ILLINOIS. THE BISHOP 

HILL COLONY. THE COURSE OF MIGRATION 

TO IOWA 

The history of Swedish emigration to this country prop- 
erly begins Avith the sailing of the Kalmar Nyckel ^ and the 
Fagel Grip^ in the latter part of the year 1637 and the 
establishment of the Swedish colony on the Delaware in the 
following year. The colonial enterprise which thus resulted 
in the founding of the state of New Sweden in what now 
comprises Delaware, the city of Philadelphia, and adjoining 
parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey was first projected 
by Wilhelm Usselincx, the organizer of the Dutch AYest 
India Company, and definitely planned by Peter Minuit, 
one time Governor of New Netherlands.^ It had the sanc- 
tion and indeed the active support of Gustavus Adolphus, 
and upon his death at the battle of Liitzen in 1627 was pro- 
moted and executed in accordance with the king's wishes by 
his great chancellor, Axel Oxenstjerna.* The history of 

1 The Key of Kalmar. 

2 The Griffin. 

3 From 162G to 1632. 

* The proposal submitted by Usselincx aimed merely at the formation of a 
commercial company. The warrant for the establishment of such a company 
was issued and signed by Gustavus Adolphus on December 21, 1024. On May 1, 
1627, a commercial company, endowed with the privilege of founding foreign 
colonies, was then incorporated at Stockholm. According to the broader plans 



74 

JSTew Sweden as a political state forms an interesting and 
important chapter in American political history; but to dis- 
cuss that history in this connection would take us beyond 
our present purposed Nor can we give it anything but the 
briefest mention even as a part of Swedish American immi- 
gration history. That the expedition of 1628 was the first 
one from Sweden to America has been definitely established, 
although certain historians have stated that an expedition 
took place in 1627; others again that one took place in 
1631.^ The expedition of 1638 was composed of about 
fifty colonists from Sweden and Holland. How many 
Swedes there were we do not know. The lieutenant, Mans 
Kling, is the only one expressly named. He is, then, as 
far as can be ascertained the first Swede to visit America. 
E,eorus Torkillus,^ a minister, is named as accompanying the 

of " the Defender of tEe Protestant Faith in Europe," it was not, however, to be 
merely a commercial enterprise, but, in the language of Provost Stills, "The col- 
onists were sent out under the King's express protection as the vanguard of an 
army to found a free State, where they, and those who might join them, from 
whatever nation they might come, might be secure in the enjoyment of the fruits 
of their labor and especially of their rights of conscience." It was to be a refuge 
for oppressed Protestants from every country. — See TTie Pennsylvania Magazine 
of History and Biography, Vol. I, p. 160. 

1 The Pennsylvania Historical Society has published a great deal of material 
relative to the colony. — See The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biog- 
raphy, Vols. I-XVI; especially the article by Professor C. T. Odhner on The 
Founding of New Sweden, 1637-1012, in volumes III-IV, translated by Professor 
G. B. Keen; and an article on The History of New Sioeden, by Professor Karl K. 
S. Sprinchorn, in volume VII; also numerous contributions by Professor George B. 
Keen, Secretary of the Society, himself a descendant of Joran Kyn, who emi- 
grated from Upland, Sweden, to Delaware in 1642. Provost Charles J. Stills, 
( University of Pennsylvania ) President of the Society, who is quoted above 
also comes of the Delaware stock. His ancestors emigrated to Delaware at an 
early date. 

- Incorrect also is the date 163-t, given by Nicholas Collin in TJie Pennsylvania 
Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XVI, p. 340. 

^ Certain writers are mistaken when they say that Torkillus came in the first 
expedition. 



75 

second expedition in 1640. No list of the colonists of 1638 
and 1640 has been found, but the Royal Archives in Stock- 
holm contain a roll of names of persons in New Sweden 
still living in May, 1648, and specific mention is made of sev- 
eral who came in the Key of Kalmar. ^ Among these is men- 
tioned Peter G. Rambo, Magistrate of the Swedish colony, 
who died in Philadelphia County, 1698, as the last survivor 
of the first two expeditions. There were in all ten expedi- 
tions, the last one arriving in 1656, after the colony had 
passed into the hands of the Dutch. 

We have seen that already in the second expedition a 
minister accompanied the colonists, while in the fourth expe- 
dition, commanded by Governor Printz, the government 
sent a second preacher of the Gospel, Johannes Campanins, 
from Stockholm. The home church, then, established at 
the very beginning a mission in New Sweden; and this 
mission lasted 151 years, or 136 years after New Sweden 
had ceased to exist as a political state. ^ Linguistically also 
the colony continued to be Swedish through all the period 
of Dutch and English occupancy and almost to the end of 
the eighteenth century.^ During all this time the state 
church at home supplied the colony with teachers and 
preachers of the gospel, who taught and preached in the 
Swedish language and were answerable in every way to the 
Consistory at Stockholm. Moreover, the church records of 



1 Cited by Professor Odhner, p. 402, They came, therefore, in 1638 or 16-10; 
but it would seem that those mentioned by Professor Odhner came in the latter 
year. 

- See above, p. 38; and Ungdomsvihinen for February, 1903. 

» That is, a very considerable number still understood the Swedish language. 



i h 

the colony offer much valuable material regarding the later 
history of the colony. Thus we learn that in 1754 there 
were three hundred and fifty-three persons in Racoon and 
Pensneck parishes only who could read the Swedish lan- 
guage well.^ Down to this time at any rate we may say 
that in general the colony was bilingual and largely Swed- 
ish. After about 1750 the Americanization of the younger 
generation was more rapid. In 1758 AYicacoa vestry peti- 
tioned the Consistory that a clergyman should be commis- 
sioned for that parish and that he should be permitted occa- 
sionally to preach in English.^ In 17(35 there are instruc- 
tions to Rev. Borell to preach alternately in Swedish and 
English in the new church at Kingsessing.^ The last Swed- 
ish minister in the colony was Nicholas Collin; he was com- 
missioned in 1770 and was after 1791 the only Swedish 
minister left. Almost down to his death in 1831, he preached 
twice a month to a small congregation in Wicacoa parish. 
Norelius writes in his History of the Swedish Church^ that 
in 1868 he met in Philadelphia a Swede, Erik Alund, who 
had come to Philadelphia in 1823 and who retoiembered 
Avell Rev. Collin. A writer* in Ungdomsvannen for Febru- 
ruary, 1903, states that there are still living in Philadelphia 



1 Facts gathered from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 

-New churches at Upper Merion (now Swedeboro ) and Kingsessiiig (now 
Darby) were built in 1702. 

' De Svenska Luterska Fdrsamlingarnas och Svenskarnes Historia i Ajnerika, 
RoCk Island, 1890. The work covers 871 pages. For many facts in this article 
I am indebted to this valuable work and hereby acknowledge gratefully help 
otherwise given me in letters by its eminent author, Rev. E. Norelius, of Vasa, 
Jlinn., President of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod. 

•* Editor Ander Schcin, of Chicago, whose series of articles in Ungdomsvannen 
for 1902-1903 forms the most thoroughgoing investigation of the later history of 
the colony that we have. 



those wlio remember "The Swedish Doctor Collin."^ It is 
an interesting fact that one of the first immigrants from 
Sweden in the nineteenth century found in this country the 
last living immigrant to the colony founded in 1G38 on the 
Delaware and with whom he could still speak in his native 
tongue. 

If it be asked w^hy there resulted no permanent Swedish 
immigration to a colony so firmly established, the answer 
will not be difficult to find. It was purely a government 
undertaking, and with the loss of the province the Swedish 
government no longer had any interest in it as a colonial 
enterprise; and furthermore, the colonists had not been 
recruited from those classes whence any extended emigra- 
tion movement would have to come. It is doubtful if 
knowledge of the existence of the colony had really reached 
the common classes of Sweden and the rural districts. 
Ambassador R. L. Smith writes that during two years resi- 
dence in Sweden as Ambassador (1810-12) he never heard 
any mention made of the colony on the Delaware beyond 
the fact that a mission had early visited America and had 
built churches and preached the gospel there. ^ And, finally, 
it must also be borne in mind that the difiiculties in the way 
of emigration from Sweden before 1840 w^ere well-nigh 
insurmountable to that class that has always been most 
largely represented among immigrant settlers in America. 

In the eighteenth century a number of Moravians emi- 
grated from the Scandinavian countries'^ to Pennsylvania and 



1 See also German Avierican Annals for 1903, p. 372. 

2 The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. I, p. 154. 
^ See above, p. 12. 



78 

North Carolina. A Moravian society had been formed in 
Stockholm in 1740. As early as 1735 German Moravians 
established a colony in Savannah, Georgia, and in 1740 a 
larger and more permanent colony was founded at Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania. ^ In a later colony established at Bethabara, 
North Carolina, not a few Scandinavians took part, as many 
Swedes seem later to have emigrated to the church at Beth- 
lehem. This latter was located not far from the Delaware 
colony and the records show that there was considerable 
intercourse between the two and that some of the Delaware 
Swedes joined the Moravians at Bethlehem. Thus in 1744 a 
Danish Moravian minister, Paul Daniel Berzelius, preached 
in Gloria Dei church^ in Philadelphia and made many con- 
verts among the Swedish Lutherans.^ He was assisted by 
two Swedes, Abraham Eeinke and Sven Kosen, who had 
immigrated a few years before, the former from Stockholm 
and the latter from Gothenburg.* A Swedish minister, Lars 
Nyberg, who had come to America as pastor for a German 
Lutheran church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but who later 
joined the Moravians, is named as especially active in these 
parishes.^ There are documents in the collections of the 
Pennsylvania Historical Society that give much information 
with regard to these facts. A Swedish book, printed in 
1702, that is found in a museum in Delavv^are also contains 



1 See above, p. 12. 

2 This church was erected by the Swedes in the latter part of the seventeenth 
century. The building is still standing, but is now the property of the Episcopal 
church. 

3 Especially in Racoon and Pensneck parishes. 
* Ungdomsvannen, 1902, p. 339. 

6 Later he returned to Sweden and again entered the state church. 



79 

much material on the Delaware Swedes, and particularly 
with reference to their religious activities. 

No record of any other Swedish immigration in the eight- 
eenth century has come down to us. A writer is authority 
for the statement that the early Swedes who came to this 
country in the nineteenth century found in Charleston, 
South Carolina, Swedes who had emigrated in the preceding 
century.^ If so, they would seem to have been members of 
the Delaware or Moravian colonies who had (temporarily?) 
left those colonies. Swedes from Delaware took part in 
the War of Independence, and the author of a recent book 
recalls the fact that Baron von Stedingk, a Swede, fought on 
the side of America.^ W. W. Thomas, once United States 
Minister to Norway -SAveden, writes that "The man who, 
as a member of the Continental Congress, gave the casting 
vote of Pennsylvania in favor of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was a Swede of the Delaware stock — John -Mor- 
ton."^ 

We now come to the nineteenth century. The records of 
individual immigration from Sweden in the early part of 
this century are very meagre. The first name that appears 
is that of Jacob Fahlstrom, who may have been in Canada 
as early as 1815. He seems to have come to Canada by 
way of London. In 1819 he was in northern Minnesota^ 



1 O. N. Nelson in Scandinavians, Vol. I, p. 36. 

2 Dr. Carl Sundbeck iu Svensk-Amerikanerna, deras Materiella och Andliga 
Strdfvanden, Rock Island, 1904. This book is an account of present Swedish- 
American conditions. 

s Xew England Ilistorical Eegister, quoted by Nelson. Dr. Carl Sundbeck also 
recalls the fact that it was a woman of the Delaware stock who made the first 
U. S. flag at Philadelphia. Tier name was Betsy Griscomb Ross. 

4 See Scandinavians, Vol. I, p. 306, where biography of Fahlstrom is given. 



80 

and Wisconsin. In that year he was employed by the 
American Fur Company to trade with the Indians around 
Lake Superior.^ At one time he was a Methodist mis- 
sionary among the Indians, with whom he also lived for a 
time as a native.^ In 1837 he settled in what is now Wash- 
ington County, Minnesota, being therefore the first Swede 
in that State. He died in 1859 at Afton, Washington 
County, Minnesota, where his descendants still live. 

Reference has already been made to Erick Alund, from 
Alund, Upland, who in 1823 came in a Swedish ship and 
located in Philadelphia. AVhether others emigrated in the 
same ship^ is not known, nor have we any further facts 
regarding Alund. Neither of these two early immigrants 
seem to have continued any connection with friends at home, 
and consequently they played no part in promoting emigra- 
tion to this country. 

Our next name, however, occuj^ies a very much more im- 
portant place in Swedish American history. Olof Gustaf 
Hedstrom, the "Father of Swedish Methodism in America," 
was born in Tvinnesheda in Nottebeck's parish^ in the pro- 
vince of Kronberg, southern Sweden, in 1803. He emi- 
grated to New York in 1825, there married Caroline Pinck- 
ney, and became converted to Methodism. In 1833 he 
made a visit to Sweden, where he converted his parents and 
a brother, Jonas Hedstrom."* The latter emigrated to Amer- 
ica with his brother and later became the father of Swedish 



1 See Scandinavians, Vol. I, p. 396. 
- This ship was, I believe, laden with a cargo of iron. 

3 Thus rightly corrected by Rev. Korelius from "Trernhed's Forsamling" as 
given by Rev. H. Olsen.— See Norelius, p. 10. 
•» Norelius, p. 17. 



81 

Methodism in tlie West. From 1835 to 1845 O. G. Iled- 
strom preached among the English Methodists in New 
York. In 1845 he established a mission among Swedish 
Americans in New York.^ 

During the later thirties and the forties the elder Iled- 
strom worked in the interests of Methodism among the 
Swedish settlers in New York and among immigrants who 
came from Sweden, and large numbers were converted by 
him. AAhile he Avas primarily serving the church he Avas 
often also of much assistance otherwise to the immigrants 
and frequently directed them where to settle. lu this way 
he exerted a very great influence upon the course that 
Swedish immigration took in this country. It w^as directly 
through his influence that Victoria, Illinois, received such a 
large sliare of Swedish settlers in the later forties, an event 
which gave the direction to Sw^edish migration for a decade 
more. Furthermore, he was instrumental in locating the flrst 
Erik-Jansenists at Bishop Hill in 1845-6. O. G. lied- 
strom always remained in New York. Plis brother Jonas, 
who as a Methodist later did missionary work in the AYest 
in conjunction with his brother, remained in New York and 
Pennsylvania, employed as a blacksmith during the flrst 
few years after his coming to America.^ In Philadelphia he 
met a Peter Sonberger (a Swede), and both of these to- 
gether with a Mr. Pollock and wife^ removed to Knox 



1 Assisted by two Americans, Geo. T. Cobb and Wm. G. Roggs, and a Peter 
Bergner, the last named being a Swede. 

^ An interesting account of the two Hedstroms is given by Norelius, pp. 23-20. 
See also Svenskarne i Illinois, Chicago, 1880, by Eric Johnson and C. F. Peterson; 
and Sverige i Amerika, ('hicago, 18P8, by C. F. Peterson. 

'Mrs. Pollock was born in Sweden and evidently emigrated to America early 
in the thirties. — See brief account in Herlenius' Erik Janssismens Ilistoria, Jiinkop- 
ing, 1900. 



82 

County, Illinois, in 1838, settling in what is now Victoria 
township. These formed the nucleus of the extensive 
Swedish colony which was established in 1846 and the years 
following in that locality. 

With our scanty records it is impossible to say how 
extensive individual immigration from Sweden may have 
been in the thirties. AVith the stringent laws against emi- 
gration still in force it could not have been very great. But 
inasmuch as the movement had taken hold of several pro- 
vinces in southwestern Norway and as ships loaded with 
cargoes of iron plied between Gefle, Gothenburg, and Amer- 
ican ports at that time, it seems likely that not a few may 
have embarked in such ships for the New World. Among 
such is named H. P. Gryden, who. came to Boston in 1838, 
living the first few years in Boston, New York, and Mon- 
treal, and who in company with an Englishman by the 
name of Henbury Smith established a wagon factory in 
Cincinnati in 1842.-^ S. M. Svenson, who directed the first 
Swedish immigration to Texas, emigrated from Smaland in 
1836, locating first in New York and later living for a time 
in Baltimore. He moved to Texas in 1838 and engaged in 
business at Brazoria.^ 

There were Swedes in dift'erent parts of the South at an 
early date. Thus, a brother of Rev. S. B. Newman (who 
emigrated in 1842 to Mobile, Alabama) was at that time 
engaged in business in Mobile. Reference has already been 
made to Peter Sonberger, who lived in Philadelphia in 



1 Gryden moved to Chicago in 1800. — See sketch of his life in Svenskarne i 
Illinois, p. 426. 
=* Norelius, p. .37. 



S3 

1838, and. to Peter Bergner, who is mentioned by Norelius 
as living in New York in 1845. Gustaf Unonius^ saj^s in 
his Minnen that he often found here and there in America 
Swedes who had been here many years before his coming, 
which was in 1841. Thus, in Buffalo he met a Mr. Morell 
who had been here a long time and had nearly forgotten 
the Swedish language. In Milwaukee he met Captain O. 
G. Lange who had been here many years; and in 1841 he 
was visited by a certain Friman, who together with two 
brothers had been living near the Wisconsin-Illinois bound- 
ary line for three years; and Carl Peter Moberg, from 
Grenna in Gefle province, was in America about 1840, 
returning to Sweden in 1844.^ Nor shall we forget the im- 
mortal John Ericson,^ the builder of the "Princeton" and. 
of the "Monitor" whose coming to America in 1839 had. 
such far-reaching effects for America and for the world in 
general. 

The first attempt to found a settlement in this country in 
the last century did not take place before 1841. The local- 
ity is Pine Lake, Wisconsin, and the founder was Gustaf 
Unonius,^ a graduate of Upsala University. In the summer 
of 1841 he with his wife embarked from Geile, arriving in 
New York in September. After 1840 the laws regarding 
emigration were made much less stringent in Sweden and. as 
a result, says Herlenius, the so-called America- fever had 
begun to take hold of the country. Before that time the 



1 See below. 

~ John Ericson, the son of a miner in Varmland in Sweden, was born on the 31st 
of July, 1803. The Magazine of American History, Vol. XXV, offers an excellent 
likeness and biography of John Ericson. 

3 See above, p. 19. 



84 

intending emigrant was required to secure the King's per- 
mit and to pay 300 Kronor^ before lie could leave the 
country. It can easily be seen how extensively this would 
operate as a barrier to emigration. In his Minnen^ first 
part, Unonius says: "Emigration to America which since 
has become so general had then not yet begun. As far as 
I know, we were the first who availed ourselves of the 
right which recently had been given Swedish citizens, to 
leave the country without special royal permission."" 

In company with Unonius there were, perhaps, a dozen 
persons who located at Pine Lake, near the present Nasho- 
tah, about thirty miles west of Milwaukee. The settlement 
was called Upsala. Like Unonius, most of the settlers were 
not accustomed to coarse work in Sweden and consequently 
were entirely unfitted for pioneer life in the New World. 
Herein certainly lies the princij^al cause why the colony did 
not thrive. Instead of developing into a prosperous com- 
munity as did the later settlements in Iowa and Illinois, it 
soon began to wane, and in 1858, according to Unonius 
himself, it did not contain more than three Swedish families. 
Furthermore, it seems that some of the settlers were merely 
adventurers, who could not possibly have any influence 
upon emigration. Among those who for some time lived 
at Pine Lake are Capt. P. von Schneidau, E. Bergvall from 
Gothenburg, a Mr. Vadman, merchant from Norkoping, 
Rev. AVilhelm Bockman,^ E. Wister, Capt. Pehr Dahlberg, 



1 About ftSl in our money. 

2 Quoted by Norelias. 

* The first Swedish Lutlieran minister in America. He was born in Soder- 
hviddinge in 1806, came to Pine Lake, 1844, as a missionary, and returned to 
Sweden in 1849. He died in 1850. 



85 

and Ivar Hagberg.^ Baron Thott, from Skane, is also men- 
tioned as having spent some time there; and in 1849 the 
well-known Swedish novelist, Fredrika Bremer, paid the 
colony a visit. ^ Of these P. von Schneidau moved to Chi- 
cago in 1845; and the adventurer Wister plays some part in 
later settlements in Illinois. Eric U. Norrberg, who emi- 
grated from Ullarfva, Vestergotland, in 1842, locating a 
short distance west of Milwaukee, was also 23robably a set- 
tler at Pine Lake.^ Unonius returned to Sweden in 1858 
where he published his Minnen frari e)i sjutton arlg Vistelse 
i nonlcesfra AmeriJca. 

Iniiuenced by Unonius' letters printed in Swedish papers, 
Daniel Larsen,^ from Haurida, Smaland, and a company of 
fifty persons decided in 1844 to emigrate to America.* Em- 
barking with the Swedish ship Superior in October, 1844, 
they landed in Boston after a journey of ten weeks. Daniel 
Larsen located at Brocton, Massachusetts.'^ D. Larsen's 
father and the remainder of the party are said to have gone 
as far west as Sheboygan, AVisconsin.^ Larsen, Sr., died 
there in 1846. 



1 Perhaps Capt. Berg and Akerman, two of the founders of the first settlement 
in Iowa (see below), were also in Pine Lake in 1842-44. 

2 For the purpose, says Sund^n in Svensk Litteraturhlstoria, of studying "the 
homes and the position of the woman " in the New World. 

* Born in Haurida parish, 1821. 

4 Influenced also in part by Moberg, who had returned to Sweden from Amer- 
ica in 1844. 

s Upon a visit to Sweden seven years later sixty per.sons decided to emigrate 
with him, many of whom seem to have located at Brocton, thus forming the 
nucleus to the very extensive colony of Bi'octon and vicinity. — Norelius. 

« Norelius, p. 26. The facts are, however, not absolutely clear. If they located 
in Wisconsin it seems likely that some of the party would have reached their 
destination at Pine Lake, the only Swedish settlement at the time. There is no 
record of such a number of Swedes having lived at Sheboygan at that time. The 



86 

We have already had occasion to refer to Jonas Hed- 
strom and Peter Sonberger and their coming to Illinois in 
1838. They were undoubtedly the first Swedes in the 
State. In 1843 we find a Gustaf Flack located in Chicago, 
conducting a store in the neighborhood of the Clark Street 
bridge.^ About the same time came also a Swede whose 
name was Astrom (changed to Ostrum in this country) 
who had a jewelry business on South Water Street be- 
tween Clark and Dearborn. Not long after he was joined 
by a Swede named Svedberg, who came from Buffalo, New 
York. In 1845 Capt. P. von Schneidau left the Wisconsin 
settlement and located in Chicago, as has been stated above. 
These three were the first Swedish settlers in Chicago. The 
distinction of being the actual founder of the Swedish col- 
ony in Chicago, the largest city colony of Swedes in the 
country, belongs, however, to the last of these, Capt. P. 
von Schneidau. Flack returned to Sweden in 184(3.^ Sved- 
berg went to California in 1850. Ostrum made a visit to 
Sweden about the same time, nothing being known of his 
whereabouts since that date except the bare fact that he 
returned to America. P. von Schneidau, however, occupies 
a very important place in the history of the Swedes in Chi- 
cago. In the year following his locating there a party 
of fifteen families arrived from Sweden, and as none of 
them could speak English von Schneidau became their 



early failure of the Pine Lake colony also precludes the likelihood that it re- 
ceived any considerable accession of immigrants. At any rate not all seem to 
have settled at Sheboygan. 

1 Svenskarne i Illinois, p. 233. 

* Herlenius, Erik Janssismens Historia, p. 51. 



87 

interpreter and adviser.^ During the early yeavs of Swedish 
immigration to and through Chicago, von Schneidau was the 
Swedish immigrants' trusted friend and helper. Capt. von 
Schneidau was a few years later made the first Scandinavian 
Consul in Chicago. 

On the 3d of October of the same year (1846) a consider- 
able number of immigrants from Vestmanland arrived under 
the direction of Jonas Olsen," bound for the Jansenist com- 
munistic colony which was just then being established in 
Knox County, Illinois. In Chicago, however, they changed 
their mind, remaining there instead. These two groups, 
then, both of which located in Chicago in 184(3, formed the 
nucleus of the Swedish colony. The names are not given 
of any of the first party nor the locality in Sweden from 
which they came. In the second group were: Anders 
Larsen, Jan Janson and a son Charles, John P. Kallman,^ 
Pehr Erson, Peter Hessling, A. Thorsell, Peter Erickson, 
and one by the name of Kallstrom. The location of this 
original colony was on Illinois Street between Dearborn 
and State. Captain Ericson writes that as late as 1880 
Larsen and Hessling were still living in Chicago, while the 
rest had removed to other parts of the State. ^ The subse- 
quent history of the colony we cannot discuss in this connec- 
tion, although it should be mentioned that the before -named 
Unonius located there in 1849 and was one of the most 



1 Svenskarne i Illinois, p. 23-1, to which authority in the main I am indebted 
for facts relating to Chicago. 

^ Jonas Olsen was from Ofvanaker, in Helsingland. 

* Changed to Chalman in this country. 

■• In 1847 forty families came and located in Chicago. In the years following 
the numbers given are as follows: 1848, 100 persons; 1849, 400; 1850, 500; 1851, 
1000; 1852, 1000; 1854, 4000. 



88 

influential members of the colony down to the time of his 
return to Sweden in 1858. 

The Jansenist colony in Bishop Hill, Knox County, 
already referred to, dates back to the year 1846. The 
briefest mention of this settlement will here have to suffice. 
There has been much written about the causes that led to 
the emigration of 1500 persons from Helsingland, Upland, 
Vestmanland, Gestrikland, and Dalarne from 1845 to 1854 
and the establishment of the well-known communistic colony 
at Bishop Hill, Knox County, Illinois. A most thorough 
investigation of the whole subject was published by Emil 
Herlenius in 1900 under the title of Erih-Janssismeiis His- 
toi'ia, Ett Bidrag till Kdnnedom om det svenslca SeMvds- 
endet (Jonkoping, Sweden). The best American study of 
the subject is that by M. A. Mikkelson entitled. The Bishop 
Hill Colony, in the Johns Ho2)hins Universitij Studies, 10th 
Series, I. A large part of a work already referred to, 
Svensharne i Illinois, written by Eric Johnson^ and C. F. 
Peterson, also deals with the Bishop Hill colony. 

The Jansenists were a religious sect founded by Erik 
Janssen, a dissenter from the state church.^ Their strong- 
hold in Sweden was and always remained the province of 
Helsingland. Through their intolerant fanaticism and the 
aggressive methods which they adopted in the practice of 
their belief they incurred much enmity, and finding no pro- 
tection under Swedish laws they decided in 1845 to emigrate 
to America. In 1843 Gustaf Flack ^ from Alfsta parish in 



1 The son of the founder of the colony, Erik Janssen. 
" Born at Bishopskulla, Upland, in 1808. 
s See above, p. 590. 



89 

Helsinglaiid liad emigrated to America. We have seen 
that he located at Chicago in that year. lie had also 
visited in Knox County. From America he wrote let- 
ters home to Alfsta praising American conditions and our 
liberal institutions; and his letters no doubt had much to 
do with the emigration of the dissenters of Helsingland. In 
the fall of 18-45 Olof Olson was sent to America to select a 
suitable place in which to found a religious community. He 
was accompanied by his wife, two children, and two other 
persons. In New York Olson met the before-mentioned 
Olof G. Hedstrom, with whom he remained for some time; 
then, upon the recommendation of Hedstrom, he went west to 
Victoria, Illinois, where Jonas Hedstrom then lived. From 
here he wrote home to the followers of Janssen glowing 
descriptions of America and especially of Illinois. In July 
of the year following Eric Janssen arrived with a small party; 
and in the same month a larger company came with Linjo 
G. Larsen from Dalarue.^ During August 400 more arrived; 
and in October, under Jonas Olson's ^ leadership, came three 
hundred. In all there arrived at Bishop Hill between 184(3 
and 1854 eight expeditions with about 1500 persons. Her- 
leuius has shown that the communistic character of the col- 
ony had been decided upon and plans formulated accord- 
ingly by Eric Janssen himself when he left Sweden and 
appointed Jonas Olson, Olof Janssen, Olof Johnson (Ston- 
berg), and Anders Berglund as "chiefs" of all the affairs 
of the emigrants. They sailed from Gelle, via Stockholm, 



1 Larsen, the wealthiest man who joined the society, brought with him 24,000 
Eiksdaler which he placed in the common fund. 
- See Ilerlenius' work, pp. ilO-GO. 



90 

Soderhamn, Gothenburg, and Christiania to New York; and 
thence via Buffalo and the lakes to Chicago. Many of those 
who came first remained temporai'ily at Victoria. A colony 
was then located in Weller township, where a large tract of 
land was purchased. In 1853 it was organized into a cor- 
poration whose business was to be "manufacturing, milling, 
all kinds of mechanical business, agriculture, and merchan- 
dizing."^ With this we shall have to leave the Bishop 
Hill colony.^ 

In the meantime Swedes were beginning to locate in other 
parts of Illinois and in Iowa. The very large settlements 
in Victoria township, Knox County, and in Andover town- 
ship, Henry County, date from the year 1847, though three 
Swedes had already settled in Victoria in 1888,^ and Sven 
Nelson located in Andover township as early as 1840. The 
colony at Bishop Hill and those soon after formed in 
Victoiia, Knox County, and in Andover, Henry County, in 
Galesburg, Moline, and Bock Island, and surrounding parts 
of Illinois stood in the closest relation to the early settle- 
ments in Iowa. From them as well as from Sweden direct 
the Iowa settlements were recruited. Of especial interest, 
however, is the first Swedish settlement at Pine Lake, Wis- 
consin, as the parent of the first Swedish colony in Iowa, 
that of New Sweden in Jefferson County, to which we shall 
now pass. 



1 The Charter of the Bishop Hill colony, Sec. 3. 

2 Besides the works mentioned above the reader may be referred to American 
Communistic Societies, by Arthur Hinds, New York, 1902; or The Colony of 
Bishop Hill, by J. Swainsen, in Scandinavia, 1883, and reprinted in Nelson's 
History of Scandinavians. 

* See above p. 592. 



91 

THE FIRST SWEDISH SETTLEMENT IN IOWA. NAMES OF THE 
FOUNDERS AND LOCALITY IN SWEDEN FROM WHICH THEY 
CAME. ROUTE AND COST OF THE VOYAGE. RELA- 
TION OF THE SETTLEMENT TO LATER WEST- 
WARD MIGRATION 

The fii'st Swedish settlement in Iowa was located at Brush 
Creek (later New Sweden) in Jefferson County in the fall 
of 1845. It is the second Swedish rural settlement in 
America in the last century, and the first extensive settle- 
ment in the country.^ There were in all something over 
thirty persons in the party, nearly all from Kisa, Ostergot- 
land, in east central Sweden. The director of the party 
and founder of the settlement was Peter Kassel, born in 
Asby, Ostergotland, in 1791. This was the first party of 
immigrants from that locality in Sweden. The causes that 
led them to emigrate and directed them to Iowa were as fol- 
lows: — Among the earliest settlers in Pine Lake, Wiscon- 
sin, we have mentioned P. von Schneidau, who located there 
in 1812. From Pine Lake he wrote home to his father, 
Major von Schneidau in Kisa, Ostergotland, letters setting 
forth the great opportunities for the immigrant in the West. 
These letters were widely read and awakened in many the 
desire to emigrate to America. Finally, in the summer of 
1845 a number decided to emigrate. Among these was 
Peter Kassel, then a man of fifty-four, who was chosen 
leader. Kassel had been a miller and for some time over- 
seer or Rdttare of a large estate. He was a man of a fair, 
general education for the time; and he was something of a 



1 Being one j-ear prior to that of Bishop Hill. 



92 

mechanic, having invented a threshing machine propelled 
by hand,^ 

The party composed of Peter Kassel, wife and five chil- 
dren,^ his brother-in-law, Peter Anderson, wife and two 
children, John Danielson, wife and five children,^ John 
Munson, wife and three children,^ a Mr. Akerman, Erik 
Anderson,^ Sarah Anderson,^ all from Ostergotland, and a 
Mr. Berg and family, from Stockholm, embarked wdth the 
brig Superb early in July from Gothenburg. They landed 
in New York in the latter part of iVugust of that year, after 
a voyage of two months. The cost of the voyage was 
$20.00. The destination of the expedition was Pine Lake, 
Wisconsin. In New York the party accidentally met Pehr 
Dahlberg, who was there at the time to meet his family, 
which had arrived, August 12th, from Kimbrishamn in 
southern Sweden. Dahlberg had been in the Wisconsin 
colony, but had also visited Illinois; and it seems that he 
knew something about Iowa. Through his influence it was, 
according to the authority of his son, Robert N. Dahlberg,^ 



1 These facts are taken from Noreliits. 
Two girls and three boys. 

s Two girls and three boys. 

* Three girls. 

5 Unmarried. Sarah Anderson was married in 1851 to John P. Anderson, who 
came to the colony in 1840. — History of Jefferson County^ p. 543. 

« Dahlberg and family remained two weeks after the arrival of the family. 
Dahlberg writes: "One day during this time Captain Dahlberg noticed a 
Swedish vessel anchored near the Bethel ship, and taking a walk along the 
wharf, he met some of the men who had come on the vessel and learned that four 
families had arrived from Sweden. The party was delighted to meet him and 
learn that he could ispeak the English language; and soon a conference was held, 
and though the party was headed for Wisconsin they were not slow in under- 
standing the great advantage to them in following one who could talk for them 
and look after their interests in this land of a strange tongue; and accordingly 



93 

tliat the immigrants decided to go to Iowa. Through Nore- 
lius we also learn that Akerman had been in America before, 
having served in the American army for three years. Later 
he had returned to Sweden, but came to America again in 
Kassel's company.^ Information regarding Iowa may, per- 
haps, have come through him to the immigrants, but it seems 
clear that it was primarily Dahlberg who induced them to 
go to Iowa. The overland route was by rail to Philadelphia, 
and from there by canal boat to Pittsburg; thence by the 
Ohio and the Mississippi rivers as far as Burlington, where 
they arrived in the latter part of September, 1845. From 
there the party went inland forty-two miles as far as Brush 
Creek in Lockridge township, Jefferson County, and 
located. The settlement which they founded was called by 
them jS^ew Sweden.^ To the founders of the colony, then, 
are to be added, besides those named above, Pehr Dahl- 
berg, v^dfe and seven children.^ 

The first government claim preempted was that of Pehr 
Dahlberg,^ which is recorded as No. 1043, Fairfield Series, 



they entreated him to take them with him to the beautiful Territory of Iowa of 
which he had lieard so mucli and to which he had determined to take his fam- 
ily." The Bethel ship mentioned was Rev. 0. G. Hedstrom's mission ship. 
See above, p. -591. 

' According to Norelius, Akerman was the interpreter for the immigrants on 
the inland journey (p. 87). In 184(3 Akerman went to Fort Des Moines and 
again joined the army. He died in service in the Mexican war. 

2 E. N. Dahlberg says that his father and Mr. Berg, both of whom were from 
Stockholm, christened the place "New Stockholm." 

» The number of the original settlers is generally given as twenty-five or 
" several families." According to Rev. C. J, Beng.ston, Rock Island, in a letter to 
the writer it was thirty, which seems to be about correct, the number being 
thirty-four plus the members of Mr. Berg's family, which is not given. 

* See Fairfield Tribune for June 14, 1905, for an article on New Sweden by R. 
N. Dahlberg, son of Pehr Dahlberg. 



94 

and is dated October 7, 1847. The land claimed was the 
Avest half of northeast quarter, Section 26, Township 72, N. 
Range 8 West, upon which Dahlberg had previously built 
a log house and upon which he was living at the time. In 
the following year, however, Dahlberg left the colony for 
Keokuk and did not return.^ In 1849 he removed to 
Columbus, Van Buren County, being, therefore, it seems, 
the first Swedish settler in that county.^ The rest, how- 
ever, all of whom were farmers, remained and the settle- 
ment developed into a prosperous community in a few years. 

The leading spirit in the colony was undoubtedly Peter 
Kassel; his name is closely bound up with its early history. 
He was also the real promoter of further immigration to the 
settlement as well as to the settlements that were at the 
same time being formed in different parts of Illinois. Most 
of the early Swedish immigrants to Iowa were led to emi- 
grate through letters from Kassel to his old home in Sweden, 
and the destination of these was always "Kassel's settle- 
ment" at New Sweden. With him began the extensive 
emigration from Ostergotland, much of which was, how- 
ever, later directed to Illinois and other parts of the North- 
west. 

The second party of immigrants came in 1846. In that 
year several families arrived, but the exact number is not 
known. In 1847 there came a small party from Stockholm, 



1 The reasons for his separation from the colony need not be recited here; tliey 
are related in the article in the Fairfield Tribune cited above. 

* In 1851 he again moved to a place three miles north of Bentonsport, settling 
in Keosauqua, Van Buren County, in 1852. He died December 9, 1893, in Fair- 
field, Jelferson County, at the age of ninety-one years and six months. Brief 
biographies of his .seven children who accompanied him to New Sweden in 1845 
are given in the article referred to. 



95 

settling in New Sweden. In the same year a large party of 
emigrants who had exchanged letters with Kassel left 
Ostergotland intending to go to Io\^a. The settlement in 
Victoria had been founded in that year, and when they 
arrived in New York they were advised by Kev. Hedstrom, 
who represented to them the advantages for agriculture in 
Illinois, to take the route through Illinois and Victoria, 
where his brother lived. Arriving in Victoria they Avere 
induced by Jonas Hedstrom, and through an especially 
tempting offer to immigrants made by a land comj^any, to 
settle in Andover; and thus they became the founders of 
one of the most exclusively Swedish settlements in Illinois. 
In the following year Andover also received a very large 
numl^er of immigi'ants from Ostergotland. 

The difficulties connected with getting passage across the 
Mississippi from Illinois to Burlington (which was the 
first landing place of all early Swedish immigrants in Iowa) 
often acted as a check to immigration into Iowa. Thus 
Nils Magnus Swedberg, who in 1849 came in a party of 
three hundred, all bound for Jefferson County, waited a 
long time in vain for accommodations from Rock Island to 
Burlington, and finally returned to Andover and settled in 
Swedona, Mercer County. 

Among those who came to New Sweden in 1847 was the 
well-known Magnus Fredrik Hakansen, from Stockholm, the 
first Swedish Lutheran minister in lowa^ and the founder of 
the first Swedish church organization in the State, which 
was located at New Sweden in 1848.^ This was, further- 



1 Not ordained, however, before 1851. 

2 Formally organized, it seems, in 1850; but, see Scandinavians, p. 171. 



96 

more, the first Swedish Lutheran congregation in America 
in the last century. Until 1858 Hakansen was the only 
Swedish Lutheran minister located in Iowa. Swedish set- 
tlements had by that time been effected in several counties, 
and five congregations had been formed, of all of which 
Eev. Hakansen had charge. In 1856 he located at Berg- 
holm, Wapello County (see below). In 1849 Kev. Unonius 
visited the settlement in the capacity of Episcopal minister, 
and in the year 1850 Rev. Jonas Hedstrom came there and 
organized a small Swedish Methodist congregation, the fii'st 
in the State. In the year 1854 Revs. G. Palmquist and F. O. 
Nilson, Baptist ministers, came and attempted to organize 
a Baptist church. The history of the colony during these 
years is in a large measure the history of religious contro- 
versies between the ministers.^ Especially antagonistic to 
the Lutheran church was the aggressive and often unscrupu- 
lous Hedstrom, who succeeded in converting a considerable 
number of the settlers to Methodism. Kassel himself and 
Danielson were both converted to that belief and they were 
among the first Methodist preachers in that locality. In 
the following years and as late as 1870, the settlement 
received regularly new accessions from Sweden, mostly 
from Linkoping in Ostergotland. They numbered five hun- 
dred in 18o8, including one hundred families.^ The colony 
continued to grow and the settlers were prosperous.^ Among 



1 See the account by Norelias, pp. 88-97. 

- The Centennial Ilistonj of Jefferson County, hy Chas. H. Fletcher, Fairfield, 
Iowa, 1876, gives the membership of the Swedish Lutheian church as 400. A 
writer in 1858 in TIemlandet, Chicago, says that "the relatively largest" (de 
jamforligst fiesta) number are Lutherans. 

s The short history referred to says (p. 19) of the population of Lockridge 
township: "Lockridge Township is largely settled by Swedes who are improv- 
ing the land and accumulating much wealth in property and money." 



97 

Xew Sweden's prominent pioneers at this time may be 
mentioned especially Andrew F. Cassel, born in 1831, son 
of Peter Kassel, the founder; F. O. Danielson, born in 
1839, Avlio served in the war in the 4th Iowa Volunteer 
Infantry, Company B; and S. P. Svenson, who with his 
wife, Anna M. Clementson Svenson and five sons came in 
1849 from Horn, Ostergotland. ^ 

In the sixties removal to newer settlements began on a 
small scale, as especially in 1 868-09 to Swedesburg in 
Henry County. The writer in Hemlandet for 1858 says: 
"The settlement lies in a forest tract between forty and 
fifty miles west of Burlington. [ Here describing the locality 
and the growth and prospects of the colony, he continues] 
Eighty-six families own altogether 5,065 acres of land; 1,788 
of this is improved. Only 360 acres were bought as gov- 
ernment land at $1.25 an acre. The rest has been bought 
of others at prices ranging from $2 to $24 per acre." 

THE FIRST SWP:DES IjST BURLINGTON. OTHER EARLY SETTLE- 
MENTS IN THE STATE DOWN TO 1855. SWEDE POINT. 
BERGHOLM. SW^EDE BEND. MINERAL RIDGE. THE 
FOUNDERS OF THESE SETTLEMENTS. TWO 
EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN NORTH- 
EASTERN IOWA 

Early Swedish immigration to Burlington is intimately 
connected with that of Jefferson County. Burlington was 
the distributing point for practically all the Swedish immi- 



1 Removed in ISO.j to Ridge Port; the old homestead is now occupied by a son, 
Frank Swanson. 

- These facts as given by Norelius are as follows: — 1 family owns 200 acres; 10 
families own between 100 and 200 acres each; 12 families own between 80 and 
100 acres each; 9 families own between 00 and 80 acres each; 36 families own 
between 40 and 60 acres each; 13 families own between 20 and 40 acres each; 5 
families own less than 20 acres each. 



98 

grants into the State. Thus, we have seen how all the 
parties who went to New Sweden passed through Burling- 
ton. The first Swedes in the city were, as far as we know, 
Kassel and Dahlberg and the party that came with them in 
1841 ; but these did not at any time reside in the city. The 
first one who permanently located in Burlington and became 
the founder of its Swedish colony was Fabian Brydolf, who 
emigrated from Ostergotland in 1841, locating in Cleveland, 
Ohio. His father was a clergyman, and Brydolf had received 
a good education. He was by profession a landscape painter. 
In 1846 he came to Burlington with a party of Swedish 
immigrants, being their interpreter on the journey as well 
as assisting them in securing land after they arrived at their 
destination.'^ 

Fabian Brydolf deserves to be remembered among Iowa's 
early pioneers. Mr. J. A. Larsen ^ gives me the following 
sketch of him which I take the liberty to print: "Brydolf 
enlisted for the Mexican War in the 13th U. S. Regulars, 
was in active service throughout the war. At the beginning 
of the Civil AVar he raised a company for the 6th Iowa Vol- 
unteers, Co. I. He lost his right arm at the battle of 
Shiloh, April 6, 1862, was rewarded for bravery with pro- 
motion to Lieutenant Colonel of the 21st Iowa. He received 
commissions from President Lincoln (in 1863) making him 
Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Regiment Veteran Reserve 
Corps. ^ Col. Brydolf has the record of being a gallant 



1 Scandinavians, p. 158. 

2 Of Burlington, Iowa. 

s In which capacity he served until 188(5. See Nelson, who gives a fuller 
biography of Brydolf. — Scandinavians, pp. 1-58-159. 



99 

soldier and a good disciplinarian. He died at l>urlington, 
Iowa, January 25, 1897." 

The next Swedish settler in Burlington was Anders Norr- 
man, who with his wife came in 1847 from Malander, 
Sweden. In that year came also M. F. Hakanson, men- 
tioned above, ^ and in 1849 Johan Ingarson, from Norra Yi 
in Ostergotland. Others certainly had settled in the town 
by 1849 but their names have not come down to us. By 
1850 there were, according to several authorities, about two 
hundred Swedes in and about the city.^ It seems, how^ever, 
that many of these were not actual settlers, but located there 
merely temporarily, later moving inland into the State. ^ 
Among those who settled there in 185U the following may 
be named: John Augustus Johnson, from Norra Vi, came 
in August in the ship Minona via Boston, Albany, BuflPalo, 
and Chicago, thence by stage to Rock Island ; Anders Wall, 
four brothers, a sister, and mother arrived from Ulrika, 
Sweden, in October, 1850;* and, finally, Charley Magnus 
Staff, wife and four children. 

The next settlement was formed in 1846 in Boone 
County,^ 170 miles northwest of New Sweden. Those who 
first located in this locality were from Kisa, Ostergotland, 
Sweden. With the intention of joining Kassel's settlement 



1 Who, however, soon went to New Sweden. Hakanson was born at Konneby 
in Blekinge. 

2 J. A. Larsen, Burlington, (in letter), and also Norelius, p. 101. 

2 Mr. Larsen writes that most of those who came at this date stayed only a 
short time. In fact, even as late as 1857 this was the case. M. F. Hakanson 
writes (quoted by Norelius): "There are not many who own real property. 
Most of them are families that remain for a time, and afterward they go farther 
into the country, but others come in their place." 

* Most of this party located north of Fort Des Moines. 

^ In Douglas and Garden townships. 



100 

they by mistake went west as far as liacoou Forks. A part 
of the company later went to Jefferson County; the rest, 
however, being attracted to the locality, decided to locate 
in Boone Connty, preempting claims twenty-five miles 
north of Fort Des Moines,^ just across the Boone County 
line. These were Magnus Anderson and six minor children ; 
Mrs. Dalander with four sons and two daughters, Emil, 
Lars P., John, Swan, Anna, and Ulrica,^ all grown; Jacob 
Nelson with two adopted daughters; Andrew Adamson and 
wife; and John Nelson, an elderly man who in the first 
years was the religious teacher of the settlers. All were 
farmers except Andrew Adamson and John Dalander, who 
were carpenters.^ Among those who located there in the 
following years were Carl J. Cassel, son of the founder of 
the New Sweden settlement, and Fred Johnson (1851), son 
of Anders Johnson, who died in Keokuk in 1851. The 
nearest town was Fort Des Moines, and they were eighty 
miles from the nearest grist mill. Some of these settlers 
later lost their claims and moved twenty-five miles farther 
north, settling then in Webster County on the Des Moines 
River (see below). The first deed recorded in the county was 
given to Mrs. Dalander and her sons for the land which they 
entered from the government at the time of their arrival.* 

In the fifties Carl J. Cassel and the Dalanders platted a 
town on their land and called it Swede Point. Those who 



1 Which at that time consisted of only a few log-houses, says Norelius. 

- Ulrica Dalander married Carl J. Cassel (son of Peter Kassel) at Fairfield, 
Jefferson County, in 1840. — History of Jefferson County, Chicago, 1879, p. 418. 

s Facts furnished me by John Anderson, of Madrid, son of Magnus Anderson, 
who came from Polk County in 1847. 

* A Biographical Record of Boone County, 1902, biography of Eric Dalander. 



101 

located at Swede Point (now Madrid) were mostly Ameri- 
cans, however, but there were ten Swedish families there in 
1855. The Webster County settlement increased steadily, 
being from the first one of the most prosperous in the State. 
The settlement that properly comes next in order is that 
of Bergholm in western Wapello County, which was origi- 
nally an off-shoot of the New Sweden settlement in Jefferson 
County. In 1847 Peter Anderson and wife,^ Edd Fager- 
strom, C. Kilberg,^ wife and five children^ and Sven Jacob- 
son^ located there. Anderson and Kilberg took several 
hundred acres of land, were prosperous and did much to 
develop the locality in its early days. While the settle- 
ment never became large there were some immigrants the 
years following, especially in 1853 and 1854.* Among 
these were Per Gustaf Anderson^ and wife (1851) from 
Dalhem, Kalmar, Gustaf Johnson*^ (1852) and family ( 1853) 
from the same localit}^, Carl Johnson,*^ Sven Burgeson, 
both from Knared, Halland (1853), John Palson from Hal- 
land, Anders Pearson (Pehrson) also from Laholm Hal- 
land in 1853, Nels Pearson and v/ife (1854) from Knared, 
Halland, Nels Swenson, Johannes Swenson, Sven Larsen 



1 From Fryserum, Province of Kalmar, Sweden, born 1817. 

3 From Laholm, Halland, Sweden. He died a few years ago at Seattle, Wash- 
ington. The name was in this country changed to Chilberg. Consul Andrew 
Chilberg of Seattle is a son of C. Kiiberg. 

s Also from Laholm, Halland, Sweden. 

^Norelius gives the number of Lutheran families in 1857 as twenty-two. 

6 Born 1820, died March 1.3, 1001. 

« Still living at Munterville, Vv'apello Co, Yns. Nels Pearson and Mrs. Sven 
Larsen are also both still living. IJev. E. T. Lindcen, pastor of the Swedish 
Lutheran church at Bergholm, writes me that of those who took part in the 
organization of the church in 18-'j6 eight are still living, four men and four 
women. 



102 

and family, the last three from Knarecl in the year 1854. 
In 1857 there were twenty -two families. Norelius says of 
the settlement at the time: "They lived for some time 
almost without any intercourse with or knowledge of other 
Swedes in America. * * ^ Some became in time quite 
wealthy and all were comfortable. They owned from 40 to 
400 acres of land each. Most of them had come from Hal- 
land, a few from Ostergotland. " 

A settlement was formed in 1849 in Hardin township in 
Webster County near the Boone County line. This settle- 
ment, called Swede Bend and which later extended into 
Marion township in Hamilton County, was founded by 
those who had been forced to give up their claims in south- 
ern Boone County (see above, p. 610). The founder of the 
settlement was John Linn, born 1826, in Dodringhult, 
Smaland, Sweden, who with his wife came that year. When 
he and a few others located in Hardin township there were 
no white settlers in that part of Webster County.^ Linn 
lived as a farmer until 1854 when he became converted to 
Methodism by Gustaf Smith, a Swedish Protestant Metho- 
dist minister, who visited the settlement and made some 
converts there that year. Among the early settlers was also 
Andrew Erickson, who had emigrated from Bollnas, Hels- 
ingland, to Victoria, Illinois, in 1849. He came to Swede 
Bend in 1854 as a Methodist (Episcopal) missionary, in 
which capacity P. Kassel also visited the locality that year. 
Through the work of Kassel, Erickson, and Linn the Meth- 



1 See Scandinavians, Vol. I, p. 184, where biography of Linn is printed. Nel- 
son writes: " While log huts were being put up for the winter, Linn and his 
wife took up temporary quarters under the trunk of a basswood tree which had 
been felled so that its butt end rested on the stump." 



103 

odist (Episcopal) church^ became established among the 
Swedes in Webster County several years before the Luther- 
ans, in Rev. M. F. Ilakanson, sent their first missionary 
there. Among the early pioneer leaders were P. J. Peter- 
son (later ordained as a minister), John Nelson, Samuel 
Peterson, Peter Swedlund, A. P. Anderson, Hon. Augustus 
Anderson, Peter Linn, Gustaf Linn, John Lindberg, and 
Carl Monson. Some of the prominent pioneers among the 
Lutherans were: Hans Hanson, Peter Larson, Lars. Ander- 
son, Andrew Johnson, G. A. Erickson, Adolf Hanson, 
John Berg(|vist, C. J. A. Ericson,^ Andrew Lundblad, 
Gustaf Rustan, Carl Fellerson, and Hans Oberg. In 1860 
the settlement numbered a little over 100; since that time 
it has grown to be one of the most influential settlements in 
the State. 

A short distance south of Swede Bend across the Boone 
County line at Ridge Port (postoffice, Mineral Ridge) a col- 
ony was located in the earlier fifties. The history of this 
colony is closely bound up with that of the two colonies on 
the North. Some of the earliest settlers here were Anders 
Adamson, Lars Fallen, Nicholas Peterson, Adolph Hanson, 
and Jon Jonson.^ In the spring of 1859, C. J. A. Ericson* 
came to Ridge Port and there opened a small store. From 

1 Linn was converted to the Methodist Episcopal belief by Kassel and Erickson. 

8 For a personal history of Senator Ericson, see A Biographical Eecord of Boone 
County, 1902, pp. 223-220; Ilistory of Scandinavians, Vol. II, pp. 164-1G6; and 
Progressive Men of loioa, Vol. II, p. 227. 

3 Thomas Olson, a Norwegian, also located there at the time. The facts regard- 
ing northern Boone County and in part also those for Webster County have been 
kindly furnished me by Senator Ericson, of Boone. 

* Senator Ericson came from Altona, Knox County, Illinois. As rental for the 
store building Mr. Ericson tells me he paid the sum of ^3 per month, and for the 
residence, a log house of two rooms, he paid $1.50 per month. 



104 

a letter from Mr. Ericson I liere quote the following as of 
special interest: "Times were hard and all the settlei's 
Avere poor. There was practically no money in the country; 
the business was largely what was termed 'barter.' Pro- 
ducts current at the store were, honey, beeswax, maple 
sugar, hides, furs, and ginseng. Flour was worth $7 per 
100 pounds, but none to be had. AVe used corn meal for 
bread, which was worth $2 per bushel. Merchandise had 
to be hauled by teams from Iowa City, then the terminus 
of the railroad, 150 miles, at a cost of about $1.25 per 100 
pounds, usually requiring two weeks to make the round trip. 
The roads were mostly mere trails across the prairies with 
bridges lacking over many of the streams; the teamsters en- 
countered many hardships and difficulties on these trips." 

The settlements whose beginnings we have just discussed 
and which include the three counties of Boone, Webster, 
and Hamilton, count among their members many of the 
most enterprising and prosperous men in the State. It is 
the largest and most influential Swedish community in Iowa. 

In Allamakee and Clayton counties two independent set- 
tlements were formed at a very early date, the first a little 
southwest of Lansing, the second between McGregor and 
Sny Magill. The earliest beginning of the settlement in 
Allamakee County dates back to 1860, when Erik Sann- 
man^ from Hudiksvall in Helsingland located there. In 
the same year G. A. Swedberg arrived from Hudiksvall, 
and Erik Sund from Tuna.^ Further, in 1851, and from 
the same locality, came Anders Brorstrom and Anders 

1 Emigrated in 1849. 

" These came in the same ship, but, had remained a while in Illinois. 



105 

Erson, from Gnarp in Helsingland, together with a few others 
Immigration continued in the following year, Anders Dan- 
ielson from Ostergotland, A. G. Olson/ Andrew Anderson, 
P. J. Amquest, and Ole G. Anderson being especially 
named; but the settlement never became large. 

The second settlement, founded 1851, was located four 
miles south of McGregor, near the Sny Magill Eiver.^ The 
founders were Staft'an Peterson, Staffan Staflianson,^ and Jan 
Larson. These were led to emigrate by a brother-in-law of 
Staffan Peterson who was an ardent Jansenist. Not thriving 
at Bishop Hill, they went north as far as McGregor, where 
they with Larson, whom they had met in Illinois, preempted 
land and located. In 1858 there were eight families in the 
settlement. 

These two small settlements were, therefore, formed from 
Bishop Hill, Illinois. They have always stood isolated from 
the remaining Swedish settlements in the State; they have 
sent forth no founders of colonies to the West. The earliest 
settlement in Jefferson County is in its origin closely con- 
nected with those of Pine Lake, Wisconsin, and Victoria, 
Illinois. It in turn became in the following years a distrib- 
uting point from which came many of the early pioneers of 
all the other early colonies to the west and the northwest, 
the beginnings of which we have endeavored to sketch in 
these pages. 



1 The son of Andrew and Bertha Olson, who came in 1854. 

2 History of the settlement given in Augustana for December, 1889, by Profes- 
sor S. M. Hill, of Augustana College. 

« From Harjedalen, Norrland. Jan Larsen came from Gestrikland. 



THE DANISH CONTINGENT IN THE POPULATION 
OF EARLY IOWA 

INDIVIDUAL IMMIGRATION FROM DENMARK TO AMERICA DOWN 
TO 1840. THE BEGINNINGS OF ORGANIZED IMMIGRATION. 
THE EARLIEST CITY COLONIES AND RURAL SETTLE- 
MENTS. THE COURSE OF MIGRATION 
TO IOWA 

Organized emigration from Denmark is of mucli more 
recent date than that from Norway or Sweden. According 
to the United States census of 1860 there were only 5,540 
Danes in the United States in that year, the total immigra- 
tion between 1851 and 1860 being 3,749.^ In that decade 
the total immigration from Norway and Sweden was 20,931. 
During the preceding ten years only 539 immigrants had 
arrived from Denmark. While it would be impossible to 
ascertain to what extent individual immigration took place 
before 1851, these figures show that the movement, which 
had struck such deep root in Norway in the early forties and 
in Sweden in the later forties, did not take hold of Denmark 
before the fifties; and even then it was only local, aftecting 
chiefiy the smaller islands of Moen, ^ro,^ Langeland and 
LoUand. 

1 See Table II, on p. 21. 

2 For the years eudinEr September 30, 1815 and 1817, the number of immigrants. 
from the Scandinavian countries is as follows: 

1845 1S47 

Norway 813 833 

Sweden 115 482 

Denmark 54 13 



107 

The first Norwegian settlement was formed in 1825, the 
first settlement of Swedes in 1841. A few small Danish 
colonies date back to 1844 and the years immediately fol- 
lowing; but as a rule they did not grow much until after 
1864, which year inaugurated the later extensive immigration 
from the province of Sleswig. 

AVhile, however, extended immigration from Denmark to 
this country is of comparatively recent date, it is a matter of 
record that there were Danes in this country twenty years 
before the establishment of the Swedish colony on the Dela- 
ware. The date of this earliest visit is 1619, the year before 
the coming of the Mayflower and five years after the found- 
ing of New Amsterdam by the Dutch. On page thirty- 
six above reference has been made to the fact that in the 
early part of that year King Christian IV, of Denmark, 
fitted out two ships for the purpose of finding a Northwest 
passage to Asia.' On May 9, 1619, sixty-six men under the 
command of Jens Munk, a Norwegian,^ sailed from Copen- 
hagen bound for the western hemisphere. The fortunes of 
that exj^edition were briefly described in the article referred 
to, from w^hich I will here quote the following: — During the 
autumn of that year and the early part of the following year 
he (Jens Munk) explored Hudson Bay and took possession 
of the surrounding country in the name of King Christian, 
calling it Nova Dania. The expedition was, however, a 
failure and all but three of the party perished from disease 
and exposure to cold in the winter of 1620. The three sur- 



1 The names of the two ships were, Eenhjoriiingen and Lanipreren. 

2 Born in Barby, Norway, in 1579. 



I 



108 

vivors, among whom was the commander, Jens Munk, re- 
turned to Norway in 1620.^ 

While the commander of the expedition, Jens Munk, was 
a Norwegian, the crew was made up largely, perhaps exclu- 
sively, of Danes. Rasmus Jensen Aarhus, a minister, ac- 
companied the expedition as its chaplain, being thus the first 
Dane, whose name has come down to us, to visit the New 
World, as we do not know the names of any of the other 
members of the expedition. The expedition possesses little 
importance since it plays no part in American history; nor 
did it have any influence upon immigration from Denmark. 
Its interest lies in the fact that it is the first recorded visit 
of Danes to America and that it was the earliest attempt in 
modern times at colonization in the United States from a 
Scandinavian country. 

To what extent Danes were present among the early colo- 
nists of New Netherlands, it would be difiicult to say. It is 
supposed that there were Danes and Norwegians in New 
Amsterdam^ as early as 1624.^ There was a fairly prosper- 
ous colony of Danes and Norwegians in New York about 
1700. In 1704 these colonists built a large stone church on 
the corner of Broadway and Rector streets, the property 
being later sold to Trinity Church; the present churchyard 
of Trinity Church occupies the site"* of the old stone build- 



1 See also Anderson's First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, p. 21. 

* On p. 37 we have noted the names of two Norwegians living there in 1633. 

8 P. S. Vig in De Danske i America, Blair, Nebraska, 1900, p. 4. 

■* Rev. K. Anderson believes he can trace this colony back as far as 1617, 
which, however, seems to me doubtful. Cf. Anderson's First Chapter in Nor- 
wegian Immigration, p. 21; and above p. 37, 



109 

ing. In this connection it should also be borne in mind 
that Danish colonies were established in the West Indies as 
early as 1650, and that after that date Danes frequently 
found their way from the West Indies to the American col- 
onies. The name of one such has come down to us to claim 
a place in Danish American annals, namely, Jockum Melchior 
Magens, born of Danish parents on March 4, 1715, at St. 
Thomas. He was a citizen of New York between 1749 and 
about 1760, returning in the latter year to the West Indies, 
where he died in August, 1783.^ Similarly Lars Nanne- 
stad, born in 1757, and one time postmaster at St. Thomas, 
became a citizen of New York, where he died in 1807. In 
Trinity Cemetery on Broadway in New York there is a mon- 
ument with a Danish inscription bearing his name. 

The discovery by which Russia laid claim to Alaska was 
made by a Dane, Vitus Janassen Bering,^ in 1728 and again 
in 1741. Bering was born in Horsens, Aarhus diocese, 
Denmark, in 1681. He entered the Russian service in 
1704, ^distinguished himself as a sailor, and was sent out on 
a voyage of exploration along the east coast of Kamtchatka 
in 1728, which as we know resulted in the discovery of 
Alaska. ^ 



1 p. S. Vig ill De Danske i America, p. 5. 

2 His grand uncle was the Danish historian, Vitus Bering, born 1617 in Viborg, 
and one time Professor in Copenhagen University. Winkel-Horn's Illustreret 
Konversations Lexikon, I, 1892, p. 338. 

3 When Bering became a Russian citizen he was required to change his name 
to Vitus Ivanovich Bering. 

* Tliere were also other Norse and Danish navigators in the expedition. The 
sub-lieutenant was Martin Spanberg, a Dane. See Vitus Bering, by Peter Lau- 
ridsen, translated by Julius E. Olson, Chicago, 111., for a biography of Bering. 
See also account of Bering's Voyage of Exploration in Vikings of the Pacific, by 
A. C. Laut, New York. Macmillan. 1905. Pp. 161. Bering had fought in the 
Black Sea War in 1611. 



110 

The founding of Moravian colonies in Georgia, North 
Carolina, and Pennsylvania in the 18th century has been 
referred to above, as has also the fact that Scandinavians 
were represented in considerable numbers among the found- 
ers of Moravianism in America.* In 1737 Moravian teach- 
ings were introduced into Denmark. Persecuted German 
Moravians had already in 1735 established a colony in Sa- 
vannah, Georgia. As converts to Moravianism in Denmark 
could not there legally practice their belief, they emi- 
grated to this country taking part in the founding of the 
colony at Bethlehem in 1740 and Bethabara, North Caro- 
lina, in 17-17. One of the prominent Moravian ministers in 
the Bethlehem colony at the time, Paul Daniel Berzelius, a 
Dane, we have had occasion to refer to above ^ as preaching 
among the Delaware Swedes in the Gloria Dei Church in 
Philadelj^hia, and among whom he made many converts. 
That there were Danes also among the Swedes in New 
Sweden seems very likely. In the lists of names of parish- 
ioners that appear in the church records of the colony there 
are several that are more distinctively Danish than Swedish 
in character.^ 

Among the German Lutherans in Pennsylvania there were 
Scandinavian preachers of that belief as early as the forties 
in the 18th century.^ Peter Brunholtz, who came to Phila- 

1 p. 78. 

« Pp. 38 and 78. 

8 It may be borne in mind that Skane, Blekinge, and Halland -were not politi- 
cally Swedish until 1658, when they were ceded to Sweden at the Peace of Ros- 
kilde. I am not able to say now to what extent these provinces contributed to 
the population of New Sweden. 

* We have before spoken of a Swedish preacher, Lars Nyberg, who was pastor 
of a German Lutheran church in Lancaster, Penn. — See above p. 78. 



Ill 

delphia in 1745, and who served as Lutheran minister among 
the Germans in Germautown and Philadelphia until his death 
in 1758, was a Dane, having been born in Nybol,^ Sleswig. 
Danish names are met with elsewhere. Johan Christian 
Leps, sometime pastor in the present Athens, New York, 
was of Danish birth. He is also recorded as a teacher in a 
German school in Philadelphia in 1773, the first high school 
that was founded by Germans in Pennsylvania.^ In 1782 
Leps withdrew from the ministry and settled on a farm near 
Macungie, Pennsylvania. ^ 

But these early records are few and far between. Not 
until the second quarter of the 19th century does individual 
immigration begin on a larger scale ; and even then we have 
but scant material bearing upon Danish- American immigra- 
tion history. 

Statistics show that there were only 120 Danes in the 
country in 1820; in 1840 the number does not seem to have 
been more than 1252. A few of these will fittingly find 
mention here because of their prominence or because of their 
influence upon Danish-American immigration. The name of 
Charles William Borup occupies an important place in the 
early annals of Minnesota. He was born in Copenhagen, 
Denmark, in 1806. He was educated for the medical pro- 
fession in his native country but emigrated to America in 
1827 and located in New York. In the following year he 
became agent for the American Fur Company and was sta- 



1 At that time absolutely Danish linguistically, as of course politically. Since 
1864 it has, of course, been German territory. 

2 Founded by J. C. Kunze. It closed its doors in 1776. 
» Facts from De Danske i Amerika, p. 5. 



112 

tioned near Lake Superior. He was then undoubtedly the 
first Dane in Wisconsin and Minnesota and as far as we know 
the first in the Northwest. In 1848 Borup settled in St. 
Paul, and in 1853 became the founder of the first bank in 
Minnesota.' He is reputed to have been the best financier 
in the Territory. He was later appointed Danish consul, 
and was also instrumental in the building of the first Scan- 
dinavian church in Minnesota. 

Another western pioneer who came to America in the same 
year was Niels Christian Boye; but of this Iowa pioneer 
we shall have occasion to speak below. 

The name of Anton R Rude, Dr. TheoL, holds a prom- 
inent place in the early history of the South Carolina Synod 
of the Lutheran Church. He was born in Denmark, October 
5, 1813, and came early to America.^ From Vig's account 
of him we gather the facts that he studied in Andover, 
Massachusetts, and in the Lutheran Seminary at Gettys- 
burg, Pennsylvania, was in 1842 ordained into the Lutheran 
ministry, in which capacity he served in the South Carolina 
Synod until his death, March 21, 1883. He was for a time 
editor of Lutheran Visitor, and a professor in the Synod's 
seminary. 

AVe may further mention the names of Dr. Brandstrup, 
whom we find located in Philadelphia since 1831, Peter 
Bennesen,^ who came to New York in 1832, and Peder 
Andreas Mosbol, a merchant whom we find located there 
since 1836. Henry M. Braem, Danish Consul in New 

1 In connection with his brother-in-law, Chas. H. Oakes, says Nelson in Scan- 
dinavians, Vol. I, p. 378. 

« "In his early youth", says P. S. Vig; but the exact year is not known. 
s I believe that the name was later Americanized to Bennieson. 



113 

York, and Knight of Dannebrog, was born in New York in 
1836. His father was a prosperous merchant there before 
1836.1 

The well-known Lutheran churchman, Edmund Belfoui', 
Dr. TheoL, founder of Trinity and Wicker Park English 
Lutheran churches in Chicago, pastor in Pittsburg, Penn- 
sylvania, is by birth a Dane, being born in Alster, Island 
of Sjaelland (Zealand), in 1833. His father emigrated to 
America in 1839, the mother and seven children following 
in 1841. In 1850 Edmund Belfour matriculated in the Col- 
lege of the City of New York, from which he was graduated 
with honors in ethics and oratory in 1854; entering the Theo- 
logical Seminary of the Lutheran Church in Gettysburg that 
year, he was ordained a minister in 1857. Dr. Belfour is a 
prominent contributor to the Lutheran Eiicyclopedia^ and a 
leader in the English Lutheran Church of America.^ 

Among these early Danes belongs also Peter Lassen, one 
of the first pioneers in California. He was born in Copen- 
hagen, August 7, 1800, learned the blacksmith's trade in 
his native country, and emigrated to America in 1829. Going 
to California in 1839, he there became a miller and ranch- 
man. He was a respected, influential citizen and occupies 
a position of considerable prominence among the early 
pioneers of the Golden State. ^ His name is preserved in 
Lassen County. 

Lauritz Brandt, a mechanician and inventor who lived 



1 According to Vig, p. 81. 

2 Dr. Belfour is at present pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Aleghany, 
Penn., as Rev. Learner of Iowa City informs me. 

^ Lassen^tt||^sa^ijatedji) 1859. I have not been able to ascertain under 
■what circumstances. 



114 

in New York between 1840 and 1881, was a Dane. He was 
born in Svendberg, Denmark, in 1807, where he learned 
Lis trade from his father. In 1829 he left his native coun- 
try, living two years in St. Petersburg, later in Prague, 
Vienna, Munich, and Berlin. He came to New York in 
1840, being for some time connected with the type foundry 
of David Bruce, Jr. Here he invented a machine for the 
manufacture of type; after that he lived some years in 
Europe, returning to New York in 1848. At the age of 
seventy- four he returned to Copenhagen. 

One early Danish minister to America, Peder Pederson, I 
will mention esj^ecially because of his able service and his 
long residence in this country. From 1802 to 1831 he rep- 
resented Denmark as Consul and Acting Ambassador, with 
residence in Philadelphia.^ Pederson was especially instru- 
mental in bringing about the commercial treaty of 1826 be- 
tween Denmark and the United States. He received many 
titles and orders from his government in recognition of val- 
uable service to his country. Pederson died in Copenhagen 
in 1851. His successor as minister was the no less well 
known Steen Anderson Bille, minister from 1838 to 1854. 

These names bring us down to 1844, at which time immi- 
gration from Denmark may be said, for a time at least, to 
enter upon a new phase. ^ Immigrants begin to come in 
more or less organized groups, resulting in the establish- 

1 Pederson was born in 1774 in Soro. Tlie first Danisli minister to the United 
States was Peter Blicher Olsen, who was Consul General from 1800 to 1802. 

* In the years 1847 to 1852 there was almost no immigration from Denmark, a 
fact which was due in large part undoubtedly to the war of 1848-49 (in Sleswig). 
In the years closing Sept. 30, 1845, 1847, and that closing Dec. 31, 1852, immi- 
grants from Denmark numbered respectively 54, 13, and 3. See also note 1, p. 
ii20, above. 



115 

luent of city colonies and small rural settlements in differ- 
ent parts of the country. At first these groups are very 
small and represent, as we have said above, only local 
movements at home. Between 1848 and 1850 there came, 
according to the United States census, only 539 immigrants 
from Denmark. Nevertheless this period represents the be- 
ginning of the formation of settlements. 

As we should expect, the first city colony was established 
in jSTew York City. From the beginning of the nineteenth 
century we meet with Danes in JSTew York.^ We have 
already seen that a Dane, Peter Bennesen, lived there as 
early as 1832, and that the father of Consul Braem was a 
j^rosperous merchant there before 1836. Our records are 
extremely meagre, but it does not seem unlikely that a con- 
siderable number of the 1063 Danes who came to this coun- 
try between 1831 and 1840 had located in Xew York City 
or Philadelphia, in which latter city was still the residence 
of the Danish Consulate. The presence in ISTew York of a 
Danish mission and a Danish church in the early part of the 
eighteenth century may have led to the choice of New York 
as a home on the part of many Danes who came in the nine- 
teenth century; while their near kinsmen, the Swedes in 
Delaware and Philadelphia, and more particularly the Danish 
Moravians, would have been a strong influence to attract 
them to Philadelphia.^ 

On June 27, 1844, there was formed a Scandinavian 
society in New York called Scandinavia, the first of its 

1 Other than the mission of Rev. Aarhus (1700), which I take it had lost its 
distinctive nationality before 1800. 

2 Among the earliest Danes in Philadelphia were Di-. Bonneville, who came 
before 1825, and Harman Boye who came in 182.5. See below, p. 233. 



116 

kind iu this country. The founder was James Peterson.-^ 
Among the founders and early members of the society there 
were many Danes. As members of the Danish colony 
we find Harro Paul Harring,~ Hans Jorgen Hansen, Peter 
Gildsig,^ N. Erlandsen, Martin F. Sorensen, E. T. Chris- 
tiansen, Hans P. C. Hansen, Lauritz Brandt, and Peder 
Mosbol. Among the prominent Danes in the Xew York 
colony is to be especially mentioned Paul C. Binding, the 
first appointee to a Scandinavian professorship in an Amer- 
ican university, the University of New York, where he was 
made Professor of Scandinavian Literature in 1859.* He is 
also the author of a very well -written work, History of 
Scandinavia from the Early Times of the Nortlimen and 
Vikings to the Present Day^ which reached the tenth edi- 
tion.^ 

In Baltimore there have been Danes since 184:6, though 
in small numbers. The earliest Danish settler in Chicago 
was probably Christoft'er Johnson, who was born in Copen- 
hagen, 1819, came to Chicago, 1838, and died there, 1896.^ 
George P. Hansen, a Dane, is also named as living in Chi- 
cago about the same time. Milwaukee had a Danish set- 
tler as early as 1844. His name is C. H. Molbieck and 

1 Of whose Danish nationality, however, I am not absohitely certain. 

2 Born in Husum diocese, Denmarlc, 1798; died in 1870 in London. 

* He built and was proprietor of the Gilsey House, on Broadway, one of New 
York's substantial hotels at the time. The present proprietors are, I believe, 
two sons of Peter Gilsey. 

■* See account of this in an article entitled Nordiske Studier i amerikanske 
Universiteter, by George T. Flom, that appeared in Amerika, September 9 and 
16, 1898. 

« The work is dedicated to James Lenox, founder of the Lenox Library in 
New York. Prof. Sinding was born in Alsted, Denmark, in 1813. 

* A brief account of him is given by Vig, p. 108. 



117 

he is still living there, having finished his eightieth year 
last October.^ There were, however, few Danes in the city 
before 18(30, C. H. J. Moller, editor of Fremad, and Lars 
Lamp^ (w^ho came in 1S59), being named as the earliest. 
There were Danes early in New Orleans, as e. g. , Henry 
Frelson, who w\as a wealthy merchant — but the records are 
exceedingly meagre. Among other towns may be men- 
tioned Watertown, Wis., w^here Lauritz Jacob Fribert 
located as editor of Dagen in 1842; Kenosha, Wis., settled 
by Danes before 1850; Neenah, Wis., also settled before 
1850; W^aupaca, Wis.; Jamestown, New^ York; Perth Am- 
boy, Xew Jersey; Moline, Illinois; Salt Lake City;^ and 
Indianapolis. 

In the last named city a small colony of Danes from 
Moen was formed about 1860; and here was organized the 
first Danish Lutheran congregation in America in the nine- 
teenth century, April 17, 1868.^ My friend, the Rev. M. 
Fr. Wiese,^ who organized this church and was its first 
pastor, writes me that the first Dane in the city w^as Peter 
Weis from Moen, who came in 1860 or, possibly a little 

1 His address is 320 Tliird Ave. Facts obtained from P. Jacobsen, Racine, Wis. 

2 He later became a pioneer settler at Sleepy Eye, Brown County, Minnesota. 
8 Where there was a Dane as early as 1847 — Hans Christian Hansen, born in 

Copenhagen, Denmark, November 23, ISOO, died in Salina, Silver County, Utah, 
1890. " He was a pioneer musician of Utah, as well as one of the fii-st .settlers, 
and a good citizen," writes J. F. Smith, Jr., of Salt Lake City, in a letter 
to me under date of November 29, 1905. 

••Facts therefor not correct in Bille, A History of the Danes in America, 
p. 16, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Vol. XL 

"M. Fr. Wiese, Pastor of the West Koshkonong church of the Norwegian 
Synod at Clarkson, Wisconsin, was born in Falster, Denmark, May 11, 1842, em- 
igrated to America in 1SG3, locating first in Racine, later coming to Madison, 
Wisconsin. He was for a long time pastor of a Norwegian Lutheran church at 
Cambridge, Story County, Iowa. 



118 

earlier. About the same time came Rasmus Svendsen and 
wife; and he became a grocery merchant there. N. P. Olson 
was also among the first settlers. In 1868 there were about 
fifty Danes, writes Rev. Wiese, mostly from Falster, but 
some from Moen and Sjiellaud. 

The earliest rural settlements are: (1) that of Hartland, 
Waukesha County, Wisconsin, founded in 1845 by Chr. 
Christiansen, from Lolland, Denmark, and whose descend- 
ants still reside there; (2) New Denmark, Brown County, 
Wisconsin, settled first by Niels Hansen Godtfredsen and 
wife and two others from Langeland in 181:8;^ (3) R;aymond 
Township, Racine County, Wisconsin, where there were 
Danes in the early forties;^ (4) Gowen, Montcalm County, 
Michigan, a very large settlement of Danes from Holbsek, 
Sjtelland, dating from 1850. The first settler in Gowen 
was August Rasmussen, from Hallebyore (18oU), who was 
also instrumental in bringing others of his countrymen 
to the settlement. Rasmus Jensen from Sjeby diocese, Sj?el- 
land, came in 1852; Anders Jensen and Jens Sorensen both 
from Hallebyore were among the earliest settlers. The 
first Danes in Racine were Rev. C. L. Clausen, who came 
in 1843, C. M. Reese (year not known), and P. C. Lutken, 
who came in 1857.^ From these settlements as well as 
directly from Denmark through Clinton, Burlington, and 



' Godtfredsen was born in Stoense diocese in 181-1; died in 1894. 

2 As Peder Jolian Mourier, born in Denmark in 1812; died in Racine, Wiscon- 
sin, in 1853. He may have been the first Dane in the township. 

» According to letter from Peter Jacobsen, of Racine. Of this interesting and 
important settlement Mr. Jacobsen has kindly furnished me a full account with 
complete list of settlers down to 1873, which, however, space forbids including 
in this discussion. 



119 

Davenport as the gateways of immigration, Iowa received its 
first Danish citizens. We shall now pass on to the first 
Danish immigration into Iowa. 

THE FIRST DAXES IN IOWA. THE EARLIEST DANISH SETTLE- 
MENTS IN THE STATE. THE COURSE OF MIGRATION. 
THE ELK HORN SETTLEMENT IN SHELBY COUNTY. 
BANES IN POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY. THE 
COMING OF THE DANES TO DAVEN- 
PORT AND DES MOINES 

The first Dane, and indeed the first Scandinavian in Iowa, 
was Niels Christian Boye, who was born in Lolland, Den- 
mark, in 1786. He came to America in 1827 to settle an in- 
heritance, left by his brother, Harman Boye, who had come 
to this country in 1825 and had been engaged in the Virginia 
State survey. Boye, Avho had l^een a merchant in Den- 
mark, decided to remain in America, located in Philadel- 
phia, and conducted a store there until 1837, when he re- 
moved west as far as Iowa, settling first in the present 
County of Muscatine and later in Linn County. In 1812 he 
came to Iowa City, where he was engaged in merchandiz- 
ing^ until his death in 1849.'^ Boye was thus not only the 
first Dane in Iowa, but also very likely the first Scandi- 



1 J. B. Newhall in A Glimpse of Iowa in IS46, Burlington, 1846, p. 91, men- 
tions Boye as a grocer and provision merchant. 

2 He died of cholera in St. Louis where he had gone for the purpose of buying 
goods for his basiness. I may cite the following from an obituary of the time. 
"Died of cholera in St. Louis, Mo., on Saturday, the 23d of June, 1819, Neil C. 
Boye, merchant of this city. Mr. Boye visited St. Louis for the purpose of re- 
newing his stock of goods, and whilst thus employed, fell a victim to the fearful 
scourge which for some months past has been devastating that city. Seldom 
have we witnessed so deep and general an expression of sorrow for the dead and 
sympathy for the living as in this instance." 



120 

navian in the State, having come to Iowa at least two years 
before Hans Baiiien.^ Boye was married and had thirteen 
children all of whom emigrated with him except one — later 
the famous Danish surgeon, Claudius Julius Boye, who 
died in Copenhagen in 1879. Miss Julia Boye of 533 
North Linn Street, Iowa City, is a daughter of N. C. Boye, 
and the only surviving member living in Iowa City. A 
son, Chas. Boye, printer, died in June, 1904, in Iowa City, 
Another son, Erasmus Boye, is residing at Coft'eyville, 
Kansas. 

The first Danish pioneer in the western part of the State 
was in all probability Christopher Overgaard Mynster,^ who 
was born in Copenhagen, June 24, 1796. In 1846 he emi- 
grated to America with his family, locating as a merchant 
in Washington, D. C, where he lived until 1850. In that 
year he came to Kanesville (Pottawattamie County), the 
present Council Bluffs, and bought a large number of claims 
of Mormon residents who were about to leave for Utah.^ 
In the following year he returned to Washington for his 
family. He settled 23ermanently in Kanesville, where he 
died from the Asiatic cholera in 1852.* The Mynster fam- 
ily were the only Danes in Kanesville in that year. Wm. 
A. Mynster, a well-known attorney of Council Bluiis,^ was 
a son of C. O. Mynster. He was born in Copenhagen in 



1 See above, p. 58. 

2 Eev. Vlg says that the Danish form of the name Monster, was changed to 
avoid being called "Monster." 

* Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, 1891, p. 319. 

* As Rev. Vig informs me. 

6 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County^ p. 320; and also Historical 
Atlas of Iowa, 1875, p. 532. 



121 

1843, being eight years old when the family settled in 
Kanesville. The family name appears in "Mynster Park" 
and in the "Mynster Addition" to the city of Council 
Blnfts. 

We have already referred to Rev. Clans Laurits Clausen 
as the iirst Dane in Eacine, AVisconsin. He organized there, 
in 1843, a Norwegian congregation, and served until 1852 
as pastor for various Norwegian congregations in southern 
Wisconsin.^ It would be tempting to give a fuller account 
of this Danish pioneer, this great churchman, who became 
one of the leaders in religious work among the early Nor- 
wegian settlers in Wisconsin and Iowa, as also, though to a 
far less extent, among the Danes in Iowa. Since, however, 
his activity was associated so largely with the Norwegian 
church, and as w^e have already had occasion to speak of 
him above in connection with an account of the settling of 
Mitchell County, Iowa, by the Norwegians,^ only a brief 
note will be added in this place. 

Clansen was born in ^ro, in the diocese of Sogn, Den- 
mark, on November 3, 1S20. He was educated for the 
ministry and it w^as his intention to enter the African mis- 
sion. On a visit to Norway in 1841, however, he w^as urged 
by T. O. Bache, a merchant in Drammen, to go rather 
to America as there w^as great need of missionaries and 
teachers among the Norwegian settlers in southern Wiscon- 
sin, from whom letters had come asking for religious instruc- 



1 Brief biographies of Clausen may be found in Anderson's First Chapter of 
Norwegian Immigration, Nelson's History of Scandinavians, and Vig's De Danske 
i America. 

2 See p. 70. 



122 

tors/ Clausen decided to do this and emigrated in 1843, 
accepting a call in the old Miiskego settlement^ in Eacine 
County, Wisconsin. I do not believe there were any Danes 
in the settlement at the time of the organization of the con- 
gregation although the town of Raymond received many 
Danish settlers very soon thereafter. In 1846 Clausen took 
charge of the Norwegian congregations on Rock and Jeft'er- 
son Prairies, Wisconsin. In 1852 he led a number of emi- 
grants across the State into Iowa as far west as St. Ansgar, 
Mitchell County, lowa;^ where a settlement was effected, 
being the westernmost white settlement in Northern Iowa at 
that time. As the settlement was exclusively Norwegian 
and remained so, we need not further discuss its history in 
this connection.^ 

Clausen was the first president of The Norwegian Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Synod in Afnerica, informally organized, 
January 6, 1851,^ at Rock Prairie, Wisconsin. In 1868 he 
withdrew from the Norwegian Synod; and when the Nor- 
wegian-Danish Conference was organized in 1870 he wrote 

1 An account of these facts was given by President C. K.' Preus (of Luther 
College) in an address before Edda, at the State University of Iowa, Dec. 15, 
1905, on Pioneer Church Work Among the Nonoegians in Ainerika, a brief ac- 
count of which appeared in Skandinaven (Chicago), for Friday, December 29th, 
1905, over the signature — X. 

2 This settlement had been founded in 1839. — See The loiua Journal of History 
and Politics for July, 1905, p. 360. 

3 See p. 70, note 3, where an account of that interesting expedition is quoted. 

* There were only fifty-two Danes in the whole of Mitchell County as late as 
1870. 

^This is the year that I have always understood to be that of the organization 
of the Synod, and writers usually give it so. President Preus informs me, how- 
ever, that the formal and actual organization was not effected before October, 
1853. An account of the organization of the Synod in that year was given by 
Pres. Preus in the lecture before Edda referred to above, note 1. 



123 

its constitution and became its President, resigning, how- 
ever, in 1872 on account of poor health. While living in 
Iowa he directed missionary vrork among the early Danes 
in the State and organized vai'ious congregations. There- 
after he lived some 3'ears in Virginia and Pennsylvania; in 
1878 he accepted a call to a Norwegian Lutheran congrega- 
tion in Austin, Minnesota, where he remained till 1885. He 
died in 1892 in Paulsbo, Washington. In 1856-57 Clausen 
served in the legislature of Iowa as Representative from 
Winneshiek, Howard, Mitchell, Worth, and Winnebago 
counties. In the Civil War he was appointed held chaplain 
of the Scandinavian (15th) regiment of Wisconsin^ by the 
Governor of AVisconsin. We shall now discuss bi'ieiiy the 
order and growth of the earliest settlements of Danes in 
Iowa. 

While the Mynster family formed the original nucleus of 
the extensive Danish population of Council Bluffs it was 
many years before anything like a colony can l)e said to 
have been established at that place. The State census of 
1856 gives only three Danes for Pottawattamie County, 
these residing in Kane township; while in 1870 the popula- 
tion was only 328. In the meantime a permanent settle- 
ment was effected near Luzerne in Benton County. In 
1854-55 a party of sixteen persons, of whom Peter Nikol- 
ajsen and the brothers Gustav Adolf Lundberg and Vilhelm 
Lundberg were the leaders, located there. The last two 
were from Soro, Denmark.^ Peter Nikolajsen was born in 



1 An account of the steps that led to the organization of the famous " 15th 
Wisconsin" at Madison, "Wisconsin, on September 15, 1861, is given in Amerika 
for December 15, 1905. 

- They both died in Iowa. 



124 

Copenhagen, 1812, came to New York, October 29, 1851, 
and to Iowa three years later. ^ Xikolajsen was a tailor by 
trade; later he became a lay preacher of considerable note 
among the Danes and was withal a remarkable man, writes 
Kev. P. S. Vig.3 

The census of 1856 shows that there were small settle- 
ments in Center Township, Clinton County,^ in Iowa Town- 
ship, Jackson County, and in Burlington. The nucleus of 
a later settlement was also effected at Elk Horn in Shelby 
County, the census of 1856 showing that five Danes were 
then located in Allen's Grove Township in that county. 
This settlement, which extends into the neighboring county 
(Audubon), is now the largest Danish settlement in the State, 
the total number of Danes of foreign birth being 2672. There 
are not, however, as many Danes residing in either Shelby 
or Audubon County alone as in Pottawattamie County, the 
total number in this county being 1808.* 

We have seen that there were only three Danes in Potta- 
wattamie County in 1856. In that year, however. Council 
Bluffs and vicinity received material additions to its Danish 
population, the new immigrants being part of a number of 
Mormon converts brought from Copenhagen that year un- 
der the leadership of John Ahmanson. In his book, Vor 
Tids Muliammeil,^ Ahmanson describes the coming of this 
party of 162 Danes. The account is of sufficient interest, I 

1 Nikolajsen died in Cedar Falls, Iowa, April 25, 1003. 

* In letter of November 30, 1905. To Rev. Vig I am indebted for the facts rela- 
tive to the Luzerne settlement. 

' The colony of the city of Clinton is of somewhat later date. 
*The total number of Danes of foreign birth and foreign parentage in the 
three counties in 1900 was about 10,000. 

* The Mahomet of Our Time, published in Omaha, 187G. 



125 

think, to be quoted. The party, he says,^ "left Copen- 
hagen, April 23, 185(j. On the 30th of April the steamship 
reached Liverpool, the -ith of May they left Liverpool and 
on the 1-ith of June they landed in New York. From this 
place to Iowa City they travelled by rail under the direction 
of the Mormon apostle, John Taylor. AYest of Iowa City 
there were no railroads at that time, and the 1300 miles 
that were left to Salt Lake City, therefore, had to be cov- 
ered on foot or by wagon, which was j^ossible only for those 
who had the necessary means. Those who did not possess 
the means to pay for such conveyance, and that was the 
larger number, had then to make the journey on foot. 
Moreover, the male traveller had to pull a handcart which 

weighed sixty pounds Mr. Ahmanson became the 

leader of the Scandinavian division of a handcart train of 
500 persons^ from Iowa City which they left the 26th of 
June, 1856, to Salt Lake City, which they reached the 9th 
of December. The journey led across the prairie from Iowa 
City to the Missouri Eiver, the party being there ferried 
across near the town of Florence, north of Omaha, which at 
that time formed the boundary between the White man and 
the Red Skin. The journey from Iowa City to Missouri 
went along a river in the present Elk Horn Settlement in 
Shelby County by what is still known as 'the Mormon 
track' of that expedition. Some of the party had become 
disheartened by the hardships of such a journey when they 
had arrived at Florence and they refused to go any farther. 



1 From Vig's book, quoting the work referred to. 

2 Other proselytes in this country having joined the party, what proportion of 
these additional three hundred and thirty-eight were Danes I do not know. 



126 

Many of these repudiated Mormonism entirely; while others, 
remaining Mormons, settled in Council Bluffs and other 
places in western Iowa and eastern jN^ebraska." 

If the above account is correct, and there is every reason 
to believe that it is, the colony of Council Bluffs is the old- 
est Danish colony in western Iowa, and one of the earliest in 
the State. 

Jackson Township, in Lee County, had a Danish popula- 
tion of eight in 1856; but I have no reliable facts relative to 
the formation of this settlement which numbered forty-one 
in 1870. The Danish colony of Davenport dates back to 
the later fifties, the first Danes being Peter Anderson, Chris- 
tian Thompson, and Jens Mathiesen. These came between 
1857 and 1860.^ The next Dane to arrive was John Juhler,^ 
who came from Almsted, Alsen, Sleswig, to Davenport in 
1861.^ After 1865 immigrants, mostly from Sleswig, came 
in considerable numbers. 

We now come to the so-called Elk Horn settlement to 
which we have already referred above as being credited 
with a Danish population of five in the State census of 
1856. Several Danes at present residing in Shelby County, 
of whom I have made inquiry relative to the earliest settle- 
ment in the county, say, however, that the first Danes to 
settle in the county came in 1865-68. I take it that there 
were Danes in 1856, as the United States census records, but 
I am inclined to think they remained there only tempora- 
rily, going soon after to the settlement which was then be- 

1 According to a letter from Peter Hansen of Davenport, who is, however, not 
able to give the precise year, 
s Born in 1342. 
s John Juhler, however, soon left Davenport. 



127 

ing formed in Kane ToAA^nsliip in Pottawattamie County. 
The first Danes to permanently locate in the county were, 
it seems, Chris. Christensen, born in Doldrup, Gullerup 
diocese, Denmark, 1885, and Lars Veien, born in Frederiks- 
havn, Denmark, 1829. These settled at Cuppy's Grove in 
Monroe Township in 1805.^ 

In the year 1867 Peter Jensen, born in Borgium diocese, 
Denmark, came and settled in the same locality.^ Christen 
Bertram Christensen, from Alborg, Denmark, came in 
1868.^ The first Dane in Harlan was Jens Peter Sorenseu, 
a brickmaker, who came from Jetsmark, Denmark, in 1809.^ 
J. P. Sorensen is the founder of the Danish Baptist church 
of Harlan, and C. B. Christensen was one of the charter 
members of the Cuppy's Grove Danish Baptist Church. 
The organ of the Danish Baptist church in America, Vcerj- 
teren, is published in Plarlan. The first Dane to settle in 
Clay Township was Christian Jensen, who came there from 
Moline, Illinois, in 18(38. Soon after came Ole Jensen, 
who is still living in the township. The former is from 
Hindesholm, near Kerteminde, in the island of Fyeu; the 
latter is from the island of Moen. In the following years 
many immigrants arrived from these two islands as well as 
from ^ro. Those who came from ^ro settled near the 
northern end of Indian (Jreek, while the immigrants from 
Fyen and Moen located* near the southern extremity of the 



iMr. Veien died in 1903. Mr. Christensen still lives on liis farm at Cuppj^'s 
Grove. 

2 These facts are according to a letter from Louis Christensen, Harlan, Iowa. 

« Letter from J. C. Lunn, Harlan, Iowa. Both Christensen and Sorensen are 
still living in the places where they first settled. 

4 Elk Horni loiva, 1875-1900, by P. S. Vig, Blair, Nebraska, 1901, p. 5. 



128 

Creek. In addition to these the settlement frequently 
received accessions from earlier Danish settlements in Clin- 
ton County, Davenport, Racine (Wis.), Chicago, and In- 
dianapolis. Later it became in turn, the distributing point 
for many colonies in Nebraska, Minnesota, and elsewhere. 
The settlement includes the townships of Clay, Monroe, 
Fairview, Jackson, and Harlan; and extends into Sharon 
and Oakland townships in Audubon County and down into 
Brighton Township, Cass County. In Atlantic City there 
is a considerable Danish colony, as also in Knox Township,^ 
in Pottawattamie County, just south of the Danish settle- 
ment in Fairview Township, Shelby County. 

The years following the close of the Dano- Prussian war 
inaugurated an extensive immigration of Danes from Sles- 
wig. The settlements that had been begun in Iowa received 
large accessions during this time and new colonies were 
formed elsewhere. Des Moines received its first Danish pop- 
ulation in these years, the first Dane to settle there being H. 
P. Holm, who came in 18(37. In that same year came also 
Michael Lauritsen, from Davenport, Christian Sorensen, and 
Lorens Petersen. These first four Danes to settle in Des 
Moines were from North Sleswig,^ which was ceded to 
Prussia in 1864, and they are, therefore, entered in the 
census as Germans. 

Rural settlements were now fast springing up throughout 



* The extensive Danish population of Pottawattamie County is found almost 
entirely in the western part of the county. 

* According to a letter from my friend Prof. P. P. Hornsyld, of Grand View Col- 
lege, Des Moines. The same statement will also hold true of Davenport. For 
these reasons it is extremely difticult to ascertain the real strength of the Danish- 
speaking population of the State. 



129 

the State. Thus the extensive colony of Danes in Cedar 
Falls, Black Hawk County, dates back to about 1860. In 
that year (or the following) Christian Petersen, from Sles- 
wig, located there, being the first Dane in the county. In 
1866 three young Danes came to Cedar Falls from Berlin, 
Wisconsin. One of these was Jens C. Anderson, who had 
been in America since 1857 and had served in the Civil 
War. He now resides in Blair, Nebraska.^ About the 
same time Pocahontas County received its first Danish pop- 
ulation, the first arrival being Marcus Lind from Logum 
Kloster, Sleswig, who had been in America since 1850." 
About the same time came Hans Lind from Mogelbouder, 
Sleswig;^ he settled upon a farm in Pocahontas County 
about where the town of Kolfe now stands. He moved to 
Kolfe in 1881.* 

The settlement in Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo County, dates 
back to 1867, in which year Peter Jonsen came, being fol- 
lowed in 1868 by his two brothers, Louis and Laust Jon- 
sen, from Jutland; while in 1869 Hans Nelsen and Ole 
Martensen came from Lolland.^ 

This, then, brings us down to the year 1867. The Danish 
settlements of Audubon and Cass counties are subsequent to 
this year; they are in fact an eastern and southern extension 
of the Elk Horn settlement, which, as we have seen, had 
its origin in Shelby County. Elk Horn is the largest and 



1 Information in letter from P. S. Vig. 
^ I do not know where he had been located. 
8 He had been in America since 1860. 

* He is in the jewelry business, which had been his trade in Denmark. These 
facts were given to me in a letter by Rev. Vig. 

6 Facts according to a letter from John Rasmussen, Clear Lake, Iowa. 



130 

most progressive Danish settlement in tlie State. ^ Here is 
also located the Elk Horn High School and College, a pro- 
gressive Danish preparatory school supported by the church.^ 
The Danish population of Marshall and Hamilton counties 
dates from the years immediately following the period we 
have discussed. The Danish city . colonies and rural settle- 
ments in the northern and the northw^estern parts of the 
State are of more recent foi-mation. In late years Danish 
immigration has been very small, and no new settlements 
have been formed in Iowa and rarely elsew^here in the coun- 
try. The chief influence of the Dane has been in the south- 
western counties of the State. To their material develop- 
ment he has contributed a large share. 



' A brief account of Elk Horn is given by P. S. Vig in Elk Horn i Iowa, 
187 5-1900, pp. 1-9. On pages 10-52 is given a history of the Danish Lutheran 
Church at Elk Horn, which was organized in 1876. 

8 An account of the early days of its history appears in Tlie Transactions of 
the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Vol. XI, pp. 20-2-4; also in 
The Eegister and Leader (Ues Moines) for May 29, 190-4. The Principal of the 
school is Rev. Th. N. Jersild, to whom I am indebted for some facts relative to 
the Elk Horn settlement. 



THE GKOAVTH OF THE SCANDINAVIAN FAC- 
TOR IN THE POPULATION OF IOWA 

In the preceding articles of this series the earliest immi- 
gration to Iowa from the three Scandinavian countries has 
been discussed. In that survey the Norwegian immigration 
has been traced to the year 1853, the Swedish to 1855, and 
the Danish to 1867. These years may be taken as dividing 
the period of the early beginnings of the immigration of the 
three Scandinavian nationalities into Iowa from the period 
of the later and most extensive immigration, w^hich continues 
down to about the year 1885. We have located the earliest 
settlement of Norwegians at Sugar Creek in Lee County, 
Iowa, in 1 840, that of the Swedes in New Sweden, Jefferson 
County, Iowa, in 1845, and the first actual colony of Danes 
in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, in 1850 and 
the years following.^ It thus appears that the earliest Scan- 
dinavian settlers located in Southern Iowa, the part of the 
State which both by foreign and internal immigration had 
received the largest share of the incoming population. 

From the foregoing discussion it will have been noticed 
also that the coming of the three nationalities into Iowa is 
in each case a distinct event in the immigration history of 
the State. The settlements of these three nationalities bear 
no relation to one another; and only in a very limited extent 
do w^e find any mixture of nationality. Thus, in Clayton, 



1 A Danish family had, however, located in Muscatine as early as 1837. — See 
above p. 233. 



132 

Allamakee, Winneshiek, Fayette, Lee, Mitchell, and Story 
counties the Norwegians had by 185(5 formed settlements 
aggregating 2,732 persons. In these counties there were in 
that year only 21 Danes and 137 Swedes; and a majority of 
the latter resided in a Swedish settlement in Allamakee 
County.^ The Swedes have a total population of 73 P in 
the counties of Boone, Des Moines, Jefferson, Wapello, and 
AVebster; while in these counties the total Norwegian popu- 
lation is only 23, and the total Danish population 39. The 
Danish settlements are similarly isolated from both the Nor- 
wegian and the Swedish. To some slight extent the first 
Danish immigrants settled in Norwegian communities. The 
causes for this are largely linguistic. ^ The Norwegians had 
formed extensive and flourishing colonies long before the 
Danes arrived; and when the latter came it was natural that 
they should join their own kinsmen, the Norwegians, among 
whom the language of literature and the church w^as so 
nearly like their own. 

While, however, the three nationalities located first in the 
southern part of the State their history belongs more par- 
ticularly to the northern and the west-central counties. The 
Norwegians organized their most extensive settlements in 
the northern and north-central counties, while the Danes are 
more particularly associated with the more western counties 
of Shelby, Audubon, Cass, and Pottawattamie. Of the 

1 See p. 104 above. 

* Not including Allamakee County where 84 Swedes resided. 

8 It should be said, however, that this influence was largely indirect — through 
the church. Without elaborating the point in this connection I merely wish to 
say that from the standpoint of the living speech of the great majority of the 
Scandinavian immigrants of those days the Norwegians and the Swedes stood 
closer together than the Norwegians and the Danes or the Swedes and the Danes. 



133 

three nationalities it is the Swede who has contributed most 
to the development of the southern part of the State; but 
they too have located in considerable numbers in the central 
and the northwestern parts — in Boone, Webster, Buena 
Vista, Cherokee, Kossuth, and Woodbury counties. 

The geographical location of the three nationalities in 
Iowa will, then, be found to correspond very closely with 
their relative position in the country at large. The Nor- 
wegians locate farthest north; and their extensive settle- 
ments are very largely in the northern portions of the 
"Scandinavian Northwest."^ The Danes have developed 
their most prosperous communities in a more southerly 
locality, but may be found also scattered in the north. The 
Swedes occupy an intermediate position; but in isolated 
cases they have located almost as far north as the Nor- 
wegians, while to the south in the Danish line of settlement 
they have formed some of their most prosperous settlements 
(as in Illinois, southern Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas). The 
relative location of the three nationalities is explainable 
largely by their relation to earlier settlements in the East, 
and in accordance with the tendency of the westward going 
settlers to go directly west. This consideration will explain 
the location of nearly all of the early Scandinavian settle- 
ments in lowa.^ For instance, on Map II, illustrating the 
centers of dispersion and course of migration of the Nor- 
wegians, it has been shown that the Norwegian settlements 
in northeastern Iowa are mainly descended from those in 



1 See above pp. 29-30, and Scandia, Groningen, Holland, I, 109. 
- The settlement of Xew Sweden in Jefferson County will be an exception — 
but see above pp. 91-93. 



134 

Dane, Rock, and Eacine counties in southern AVisconsin. ^ 
Further, the map also shows that the early settlements in 
central and southeastern Iowa were made by immigrants 
who came from the old Fox River settlement in Illinois, 
founded in La Salle County in 1834. 

Among the early settlements in Iowa in direct line west 
from La Salle County are those of Norway, Benton County, 
and of Story County, as shown in the map referred to. In 
this connection a few words may properly be added regard- 
ing some of the first settlements between 1853 and the tak- 
ing of the first State census in 1856. 

The small settlement in Florence Township, Benton 
County, Iowa, dates back to the year 1854. The first Nor- 
wegian in the county was Sara Darnell.^ The founder of 
the settlement was Jonas P. Nordland,^ who came to Amer- 
ica in 1853 and located first at Leland, Illinois. In the 
spring of 1854 he removed to Benton County, Iowa. In 
company with him at that time were Lars Strand and 
Sigbjorn Rosdal.* Osmund Tuttle and Filing Ellingsen 
came during the summer and settled at the same place. 
These were the first Norwegians in the county. Jonas P. 
Nordland lived at Norway, Benton County, until his death 
which occurred on August 23, 1902.^ 

The settlement in southern Story County, centering around 

1 See p. 63. 

2 She was married to an American. She had probably come to the county a 
year or two earlier. 

8 Born in Strand, Stavanger County, Norway, January 17, 1819. 

* These two, however, returned to Illinois soon after. 

^ His son, L. T. Nordland, postmaster at Norway, Benton County, has kindly 
sent me a detailed account of the coming of his father and the first Norwegians 
to Benton County, which, however, I am not able to include in this sketch. 



135 

Cambridge and Slater and extending down into Polk County, 
was founded in 1854 by immigrants from Lisbon, Illinois. 
The first Norwegians in the county were Osmund Sheldal, 
Ole Fatland, Ole Apland, and Osmund Johnson, who were 
sent out from Lisbon, Illinois, in September, 1854, to select 
a site for a colony somewhere in Iowa. Upon their return 
a large number decided to go to Iowa. During the winter 
preparations were made ; a congregation was actually formed 
which was given the name Palestine Congregation (undoubt- 
edly significant as an expression of their expectations). Ole 
Anderson was elected its minister, Erik Sheldal, deacon, 
and K. A. Bange, master of its parochial schools. On 
May 17, 1855, one hundred and six persons left Lisbon, 
taking with them twenty-five yoke of oxen and teams of 
horses and a large number of cattle. The party arrived in 
southwestern Story County, Iowa, on the 7th of June.^ 

To the same period belongs the formation of the very 
large Norwegian settlement of Story City and surrounding 
country. Like that of southern Story County, this is also a 
daughter settlement of the La Salle colony in Illinois. The 
account of its formation is in brief as follows: — Highly 
favorable reports had come from those who had visited 
Story county in quest of a fitting place to settle in the fall 
of the preceding year. A large number began making 
plans to leave for Iowa; but, desiring first to have more 
reliable facts relative to Iowa, the intending emigrants 
appointed Jonas Due, jMons Grove, Paul Thompson, Lars 



1 For a fuller account, see Becorah-Posten for February 6, 1906, under the cap- 
tion Lidt NyhijgcjerMstorie, by H. Rued Holand. The same writer has an account 
of Koshkonong (in Wisconsin) in the January, 1906, number of the quarterly 
publication of Let norske Selskab ( The Norwegian Society). 



136 

Sheldal, John N. Tarpestad, John Erickson, Jakob Erikson 
Aske, Torris Mehus, and Ola Oine as an advance committee 
to visit Story County and report the results of their investi- 
gation. These left Lisbon in June, 1855. They drove 
across the country in prairie schooners, following the over- 
laud trail. Because of church differences they had been 
instructed to select a site not immediately adjacent to the 
settlement that had already been formed by those who had 
moved thither in the spring of that year.^ Arriving at 
Newton, Story County, they made a halt; but because of 
the lack of woods they believed that locality to be undesir- 
able, and so they continued their journey to the northwestern 
part of the county. Here they selected a site for a settlement 
and purchased land for themselves and many of the party 
who had remained at Lisbon. Thereupon they returned to 
Illinois. In the fall of that year Thor O. Hedlund and 
Lars Grindem moved to Story County, and thus became 
the first settlers. In the summer of 1856 there was an 
extensive emigration from the Fox River settlement to 
Story County. A writer in SJcandinaven for Saturday, July 
14, 1900, says of the expedition that "nearly all were men 
with families and when they moved west they made up a 
train of twenty-four immigrant wagons,^ of which the twenty 
were drawn by so many yoke of oxen, while the last four 
were drawn by horses. They took with them among other 
things a flock of one hundred and fifty cattle. The journey 
took three weeks.' They arrived at their destination on 



1 The settlement in southern Story County was formed by members of the 
Norwegian Synod; that in northern Story County by people of Hauge's Synod. 
* The State census of 1856 does not, then, seem to be correct. 



137 

the ir)tli of June/ being a most exactly a year after tlie 
expedition to southern Story County. Immigration to this 
locality continued down to the eighties. To-day the settle- 
ment extends into Hamilton and Hardin counties and is one 
of the largest of Scandinavian communities in the North- 
west. By the census of 1900 there were 3,890 persons in 
the settlement who were born in Norway and 8, 200 of Nor- 
wegian parentage, making a total Norwegian speaking pop- 
ulation of over 12,000. There is also a considerable Danish 
and Swedish population in these counties and in neighbor- 
ing settlements, aggregating a total of 6,675 according to 
the census of 1900. The total Scandinavian speaking pop- 
ulation in this part of Iowa- in 1900 was 24,000. 

The first Norwegians to settle in Worth County were Gud- 
brand O. Mellem and wife who came in the summer of 1853. 
They came from St. Ansgar, Mitchell County, where Rev. 
C. L. Clausen had just founded a settlement. With them 
came at the same time Ole Fsergerboken, Aslak Larsen 
and his son Lars, but these soon returned to St. Ansgar.^ 
The actual founding of the settlement of Northw^ood and 
vicinity is of a later date. ^ The county in Iowa which has 



1 The same writer, Knut Takla, of Story City, gives a very interesting account 
of that expedition aijd of the early days of the settlement. 

* The counties of Story, Boone, Hardin, Hamilton, "Webster, Humboldt, and 
Wright. 

* Mr. Mellem was born in Hallingdal, Norway, in 1829; he emigrated to Amer- 
ica in 1849, settling first in Rock County, Wis. See above p. 71. For facts 
regarding Worth County I am indebted partly to Mr. C. 0. Gunderson, President 
of Edda, and partly to Hon. G. N. Haugen, of Northwood, according to letter of 
August 19, 1905. 

* This prosperous community of Norwegians has given Iowa her Representative 
in Congress from the fourth district, Mr. G. N. Haugen, now serving his third 
term. 



138 

to-day proportionately the largest Norwegian population is 
Winnebago. The first settlement was formed in Norway 
Township and the year was 1856. In June of that year six 
Norwegian families, namely, those of Lewis Nelson, Col- 
Lurn Larson, Hans I. Knudson, Ole Tornen, Narve Gron- 
hovd, and Hendrick Larson came from Rock County, Wis- 
consin. ^ Other early settlers were John Johnson, John 
Iverson, and Christian Anderson. ^ The settlement remained 
small, however, until the late sixties, since which time it has 
grown rapidly. ^ 

By 1856 nuclei of settlements had been formed by the 
Swedes in several other counties, as Henry, ^ Wapello, and 
Webster; while in smaller numbers Swedes are found in 
Buchanan, Dubuque, Lee, and Monroe counties, and Nor- 
wegians in Butler, Chickasaw^, and Mills. 

No actual settlements were made by Swedes in 1856. It 
may be noted, however, that Des Moines, where to-day they 
make up the chief element in the foreign born population, 
received its first Swedish settlers in that year. These were 
P. J. Anderson^ and Frank Hultman. Both of these men 
came direct from Ostergotland, Sweden. As far as I have 



' Facts given me by C. L. Nelson, of Forest Citj% the son of Lewis Nelson. 

2 Names furnished me by Rev. J. M. Dahl, of Lake Mills. 

s I am indebted to Rev. J. M. Dahl, C. L. Nelson, and T. K. Kingland for 
many facts relative to Lake Mills and Forest City which space does not permit 
including here. 

* The Swedish settlement at Swedesburg, Wayne Township, Henry County, 
■was not founded until 1864, as I am informed by Rev. A. Norrbom, of Swedes- 
Taurg, in a letter of August 29, 1905. The first settlers were G. A. Fridolph, 
Math. Anderson, S. P. Swanson, Mons Anderson, L. M. Rapp, Oliver Stephen- 
son, and John Sandahl. 

6 Died in 1891. His widow is still living at 11th and Mulberry Streets, Des 
Moines. 



139 

been able to ascertain they were morever the only Swedes in 
Des Moines nntil ISiia, in which year Anton Nordenson 
came from Stockholm. ^ AVith this brief survey we have 
brought the history of Scandinavian settlements down to 
1856, the year of the first State census. 

The following table is here offered to illustrate the extent 
and exact distribution of the three Scandinavian nationali- 
ties in the State by counties according to the State census of 
1856. It will also illustrate the distribution of the three 
Scandinavian nationalities in the different parts of the State. 
The counties where actual settlements had been made are 
given in alphabetical order. To this is appended a table 
illustrating the growth of the Scandinavian factor by decades 
since 1850. 





Table I 








County 


Norwegians 


Swedes 


Danes 


Total 


Allamakee 


506 


84 


6 


595 


Benton 


10 




1 


11 


Black Hawk 


3 


9 




12 


Boone 


19 


10 




89 


Clayton 


274 


13 




287 


Clinton 


14 


24 


21 


59 


Des Moines 


2 


227 


39 


268 


Fayette 


139 


1 




140 


Henry 


10 


38 


1 


49 


Jefferson 




294 




294 


Lee 


68 


19 


10 


97 


Mitchell 


188 


9 


4 


201 



1 Facts obtained from A. S. Carlson, of Des Moines, in a letter of August 19, 
l'o05. Mr. Carlson has kindly given me a full account of early Swedish settlers 
in Des Moines which I hope to publish elsewhere in connection with other facts 
on the Scandinavians in Des Moines. 



140 



COONTY 


Norwegians Swedes 


Danes 


Total 


Monroe 




18 




18 


Page^ 


1 






1 


Polk 


10 


9 




19 


Pottawattamie 


1 


2 


3 


6 


Scott 


2 


17 


7 


26 


Shelby 






6 


5 


Story- 


107 






107 


Wapello 




22 


1 


23 


W ebster 


2 


70 




72 


Winneshiek 


1,451 


11 


1 


1,462 


All other counties 


98 


130 


32 
130 


260 




2,904 


1,067 


4,101 




Table 


II 







Showing the extent of the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish factors 
in the State from 1850 to 1905, according to the United States 
census, supplemented by the Iowa State census for the years 1856 
and 1905. 



Year 


Norwegians 


Swedes 


Danes 


Total 


1850 


361 


231 


19 


611 


1856 


2,904 


1,067 


130 


4,101 


1860 


5,688 


1,465 


661 


7,814 


1870 


17,554 


10,796 


2,827 


31,181 


1880 


21,586 


17,559 


6,901 


46,046 


1890 


27,078 


30,276 


15,519 


72,873 


1900 


25,034 


29,875 


17,102 


72,611 


1905 


23,953 


28,396 


17,290 


69,639 



The decade of greatest increase in immigration from Nor- 
way is from 1860 to 1870. Table I illustrates the dis- 
tribution of that nationality in 1856; the proportions remain 



1 See below p. 142. 



141 

about tlie same for 18GU. The counties in Iowa which 
gained most during that decade of extensive immigration 
from Norway are Allamakee, Clayton, Winneshiek, Mitch- 
ell, and Story. In 1870 Winneshiek alone had a foreign 
born Norwegian population of 5,524.^ Wright, Emmet, 
and Palo Alto counties were first settled by Norwegians in 
the late sixties'- and early seventies. The considerable de- 
crease in the counties in the eastern part of the State during 
the last twenty years indicates that there has not only been a 
cessation of immigration to these parts, but also that in 
addition to natural decrease by death there has evidently 
taken place a removal from the older counties to the coun- 
ties farther west. ^ Furthermore, between 1890 and 1905 a 
considerable decrease is to be noted in most of the counties 
that belong to the central group of settlements. Between 
1900 and 1905 there are fair increases only in Black Hawk, 
Emmet, Hardin, Howard, Lyon, Polk, AVebster, and Wood- 
bury. ^ 

The largest increase from the Swedish immigration comes 
somewhat later. While relatively the highest percentage of 
increase took place between 1860 and 1870, the largest 



1 We have a recent contribution to Winnesliiek County history in The Pioneer 
Norwegians, by Hon. Abr. Jacobson. This book deals especially with the Nor- 
wegian pioneer history of Springfield Township, Winneshiek County. 

- Wright County was settled by Norwegians in 1809. In the spring of that 
year Hans H. Farosen, C. B. Johnson, and Fredrik Simerson settled in Belmond 
Township. The settlement later extended into Norway and Lake townships in 
Wright County and Amsterdam Township in Hancock County. 

3 The great decrease in Lee County between 1870 and 1880 is due to similar 
causes. The removal in this case was mostly to Marshall County. 

•* Fort Dodge, Webster County, was first settled by Swedes in 1869. The 
founders of the colony were: G. Alstrand, C. J. Peterson, C. F. Holmdahl, 
from Melby, Nerike, and Vexio, Sweden, respectively. — Letter from Rev. C. S. 
Resenius. 



142 

number absolutely came between 1880 and 1890. The 
counties that received the largest accessions during these 
years were: Boone, Buena Vista, Des Moines,^ Kossuth, 
Montgomery, Page, ^ Polk, •" Webster, and Woodbury, al- 
though some of these had been extensively settled before 
1880.'* Among the settlements that show a noteworthy 
decrease since 1890 may be mentioned the early ones in 
Boone, Henry, ^ Jefferson,*^ Lee, and A¥apello; while from 
1900 to 1905 there is an increase for some counties in the 
western part of the State — as Adair, Appanoose, Black 
Hawk, Cass, Lyon, and Mills. 

The heaviest immigration from Denmark took place in 
the later eighties and in the early nineties. Thus the settle- 
ments in Audubon, Shelby, Pottawattamie, and Black Hawk 
counties increased most rapidly during these years.'' The 
Danish foreign born element is the only one among the 
Scandinavian nationalities that shows an increase in the 1905 
census over that of 1900. The total for the three nationali- 
ties by the 1905 census is 69,639. The Scandinavian-speak- 



1 The City of Burlington. 

2 The Swedish Colony of Essex, Page County, dates back to 1870. — Letter 
from A. Wendstrand of August 30, 1 90o. 

* The city of Dcs Moines. 

* In the vicinity of Chariton, Lucas County, a considerable Swedish settlement 
■was also formed after 1869. The first settlers were P. J. Lindquist, J. F. Ekfclt, 
and the iErlandsen, Hasselquist, and Slattengren families, writes Rev. J. P. Borg of 
Chariton. They were from Viistergotland and Snialand, Sweden. 

"5 The largest Scandinavian population was in 1890, when it numbered (51(5. It 
is now 362. 

« Jefferson County had 880 in 1870, 071 in 1880, and at present has 490. 

''One of the most prosperous of Danisli communities in the State is that of 
Waterloo and vicinity and Cedar Falls in Black Ilawk County. It dates back 
to 18(59, in which year Lars Tliompson and wife from Tuse near Ilolbajk and 
Anders Peterson and wife from near Holbiek located in Waterloo. 



143 

iiig factor in Iowa may be measured approximately by the 
sum total of the foreign born and foreign parentage Scandi- 
navian population, the total of which was 148,907 by the 
census of 1 900. ^ 

Tables III-V are here appended to illustrate the growth 
by counties since 1870, the distribution of the Scandinavian 
population in 1905, and the increase in the three Scandi- 
navian nationalities in the second generation according to 
the last available census. 

Table III 
Showing the extent of the Scandinavian factor by counties from 
1870 to 1905 in counties which have at one time had a Scandinavian 
population of over 1,000. 



County 


1S70 


ISSO 


1890 


1905 


Allamakee 


2,187 


1,727 


1,477 


992 


Audubon 


4 


207 


1,127 


1,526 


Black Hawk 


284 


385 


711 


1,018 


Boone 


1,246 


1,820 


2,601 


2,283 


Buena Vista 


196 


818 


1,991 


1,967 


Clayton 


1,366 


941 


787 


541 


Clinton 


759 


1,123 


1,778 


1,433 


Des Moines 


1,104 


1,273 


2,162 


1,801 


Emmet 


285 


302 


785 


1,10] 


Hamilton 


624 


1,633 


2,460 


2,210 


Humboldt 


115 


515 


1,336 


1,374 


Kossuth 


76 


361 


990 


1,057 


Lee 


1,267 


508 


622 


490 


Marshall 


338 


728 


1,213 


917 


Mitchell 


1,008 


1,207 


1,041 


824 


Monona 


261 


491 


1,212 


1,165 



1 The census reports for natives of foreign parentage in 1905 are not available 
at the present time. 



144 



CotlNTY 


1870 


1880 


1890 


1905 


Montgomery 


278 


1,278 


1,511 


1,520 


Page 


156 


1,004 


1,261 


1,079 


Polk 


803 


1,628 


2,884 


3,406 


Pottawattamie 


604 


1,100 


2,585 


2,395 


Shelby 


208 


971 


1,611 


1,514 


Story 


1,354 


2,049 


2,202 


2,309 


■Webster 


1,362 


1,910 


3,027 


3,261 


Winnebago 


625 


1,862 


2,178 


2,291 


Winneshiek 


5,524 


5,009 


3,409 


2,669 


Woodbury 


372 


870 


5,060 


4,106 


Worth 


894 


2,002 


2,153 


1,819 


Wright 


60 


201 


775 


1,005 


All other counties 


7,821 


12,013 


21,924 


21,566 



Total 



31,181 46,046 72,873 69,639 



Table IV 

Showing the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish population by coun- 
ties having a Scandinavian population of 1,000 in 1905. 



County 


Norwegians 


Swedes 


Danes 


Total 


Allamakee 


853 


125 


14 


992 


Audubon 


15 


42 


1,469 


1,526 


Black Hawk 


42 


68 


908 


1,018 


Boone 


115 - 


2,061 


107 


2,283 


Buena Vista 


446 


977 


544 


1,967 


Clinton 


213 


411 


809 


1,433 


Des Moines 


16 


1,625 


160 


1,801 


Emmet 


580 


102 


419 


1,101 


Hamilton 


1,369 


544 


297 


2,210 


Humboldt 


973 


42 


359 


1,374 


Kossuth 


271 


511 


275 


1,057 


Monona 


454 


226 


485 


1,165 


Montgomery 


20 


1,486 


14 


1,520 



145 



County 


Norwegians 


Swedes 


Danes 


Total 


Page 


13 


1,055 


11 


1,079 


Polk 


548 


2,496 


362 


3,406 


Pottawattamie 


106 


436 


1,853 


2,395 


Shelby 


109 


43 


1,362 


1,514 


Story 


1,900 


100 


309 


2,309 


Webster 


927 


2,134 


200 


3,261 


Winnebago 


1,925 


245 


121 


2,291 


Winneshiek 


2,584 


58 


27 


2,669 


Woodbury 


1,354 


1,990 


762 


4,106 


Worth 


1,613 


102 


104 


1,819 


Wright 


725 


121 


159 


1,005 


Other counties 


6,680 


11,639 


5,560 


23,879 



Total 



23,953 28,396 17,290 69,639 



Table V 
Showing the total Scandinavian population of foreign birth and 
foreign parentage in the State by the U. S. census for 1900. 



Norwegians 



Swedes 



Danes 



foreign born 
foreign parentage 
foreign born 
foreign parentage 
foreign born 
foreign parentage 

Total 1900 



25,634 
33,493 
29,875 
27,365 
17,102 ^ 
15,498 S 



59,127 



I 57, 



230 



32,610 



148,967 



1 The foreisn parentage population for 1905 is not available at this time. 



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Anundsen, B. Decor ah- Post en, 1867-1897. Decorah, Iowa. 1897. 

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i Amerikas Politik. Madison, Wis. 1889. 



CHAPTERS 



ON 



SCANDINAVIAN IMMIGRATION 
TO IOWA 



BY 

GEOKGE T. FLOM, Ph. D. 

PROPESSOB OF SCANDINAVIAN liANQUAGES AND LITKRATURES 
IN THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 




Reprinted from 
THE IOWA JOURNAL OF fflSTORY AND POLITICS 

FOE 1905" AND 190B. :^BL1SHKD AT lOWA ClTT lOWA BT 

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 



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